The owner of British Gas could be forced to cut its dividend if the government caps standard energy tariffs, analysts warned yesterday. More than 600,000 Centrica retail shareholders, many of whom invested via the government’s 1986 “Tell Sid” privatisation, would be among the losers if the UK’s biggest energy supplier was unable to sustain payouts. Roshan Patel, an analyst at Investec, said that the first year of a cap could render British Gas’s domestic supply arm loss-making and halve Centrica’s earnings per share.
Times 7th Oct 2017 read more »