Centrica half-year profit falls short and lowers Energy 2027 outlook

Centrica PLC on Thursday lifted its dividend despite reporting lower operating profit and revenue in the first half of 2026, and taking a dimmer view of prospects for its Energy unit in 2027.

The Windsor, England-based energy supplier, which owns British Gas, reported a pretax profit of £672 million in the six months ended June 30, swung from £43 million loss the year prior.

Adjusted operating profit fell 9.5% to £497 million from £549 million, below £485 million consensus. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation declined 18% to £737 million from £900 million, missing £775 million consensus.

Adjusted basic earnings per share of 6.8 pence, beat consensus of 6.5p, but eased from 7.0p a year ago. The interim dividend was lifted 9.3% to 2.0p per share from 1.83p.

Revenue decreased 12% to £10.53 billion from £11.93 billion on-year, largely driven by lower Infrastructure revenue due to lower production and generation volumes, and lower Optimisation revenue as more gas volumes were sold internally to the downstream businesses rather than to the external market.

"Our journey to create a higher quality, more valuable Centrica continued during the first half of 2026.Our operational foundations are strong, commercial performance is improving, and we continue to progress our transformation programme as we drive efficiency through the organisation," said Chief Executive Chris O'Shea.

In its retail business, which includes British Gas, Centrica said it is cutting 1,300 jobs, 800 more than initially planned, meaning a 14% reduction in the customer operations workforce. This will reduce operating costs, excluding bad debt and depreciation, by 3%, the firm said.

This reflects a 20% year-on-year drop in average contact per customer with around 90% of customers

now using digital self-serve channels, Centrica said.

For 2026, Centrica expects Retail to be towards the lower end of £500 million to £800 million adjusted Ebitda guidance range, Optimisation to deliver adjusted Ebitda of around £250 million and Infrastructure to generate adjusted Ebitda of £650 million to £750 million.

For 2027, the FTSE 100 said "a wide range of outcomes" are possible for Centrica Energy.

As a result, it expects Ebitda at Centrica Energy to be around guidance for 2026 of £200 million to £250 million, which is below current consensus of £298 million, cited by RBC Capital Markets.

Centrica said there is no change to the £300 million to £400 million medium-term Ebitda guidance range for Centrica Energy which "underpins" the end-2028 and 2030 group Ebitda targets.

Reflecting the mixed results and guidance, shares in Centrica fell 3.3% to 173.90p in London on Thursday morning.

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