Centrica boss Conn to depart

The boss of Scottish Gas owner Centrica is to leave his role next year, amid a dramatic overhaul of the firm’s strategy.

The group confirmed Iain Conn’s departure as chief executive alongside an announcement that it would exit the production of oil and gas as it targets further cost savings.

It also revealed a near-60 per cent cut to the interim dividend.

Centrica chairman Charles Berry said: “Iain has led the strategic repositioning of Centrica since 2015 and has been the driving force behind our plan to turn Centrica into a sustainable business that is built around delivering clean, affordable energy and highquality services and solutions for our customers, and to respond to the significant global challenge of moving to a lower carbon energy future.

“Iain has now agreed with the board that, while he will continue to focus on driving this transformation… he will also support an orderly succession before stepping down in due course.”

Conn faced criticism from unions in April for his 44 per cent pay rise in the same year Centrica announced job cuts affecting up to 4,000 people.

The group said yesterday that it would now target an even larger cost reduction, aiming for £1 billion annualised efficiencies over the 20192022 period, up £250 million on previous estimates.

The interim dividend was slashed to 1.5p per share, while the full-year expected dividend was rebased to 5p per share.

Accounts showed the company swung to a statutory pretax loss of £446m in the six months to 30 June, compared with a £704m profit this time last year. Adjusted revenue dropped 2 per cent to £13.8bn, while underlying earnings fell 19 per cent to £1.08bn.

In the core energy supply and services division, customer numbers dropped by 409,000, but the connected home division added more than 500,000 accounts.