Centrica's first-half profit falls due to mild weather, lower energy prices

LONDON (Reuters) -British Gas owner Centrica said on Thursday its adjusted operating profit halved in the first half of this year, due to mild weather, falling wholesale energy prices and weaker returns from gas storage.

The company said its operating profit for the six months ended June 30 fell to 0.5 billion pounds from just over 1 billion in the same period last year.

Core profit or EBITDA also fell, to 0.9 billion pounds from 1.4 billion.

"The first half of 2025 has seen more challenging conditions for British Gas Energy residential and Centrica Energy, with lower commodity prices and spreads impacting our Infrastructure businesses," the company said in a statement.

British Gas, Centrica's retail energy arm, was impacted by warmer than normal weather, which impacted energy demand, while its gas and power trading business had fewer opportunities to deploy capital given wholesale price volatility, driven by news about U.S. tariffs, EU regulation, and geopolitical factors.

However Centrica still plans to raise its full-year dividend per share for 2025 to 5.5 pence, as announced previously in February, up 22% from the previous year.

"There is still much more to do across the group, including improving our commercial performance in services & solutions," CEO Chris O'Shea said in a statement, as the division's customer base fell 2% in the first half of the year.

Earlier this week Centrica announced it had signed an agreement to acquire a 15% equity stake in Britain's new nuclear project Sizewell C.

The group's total funding obligation is capped at 1.3 billion pounds and the investment will generate a return on equity of 10.8% through the construction and initial operations phase, it said.

($1 = 0.7371 pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney, with Ankita Bora and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and David Holmes)