frog in a tree
13 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica Sanzan,Which end of the telescope do you use when assessing the business performance of Centrica? Customers are being lost at a fast rate and with them the share price has also collapsed. So far I see no compelling strategy from the company to stop or reverse the situation.This is a story of a big company taking its customers for granted and ripping them off something rotten. As a result the company had no incentive to be competitive and efficient in its operations. It has become a fat old man who is being done over by younger, fitter rivals.Before long Sanzan, it is not a telescope you will be using, you will be reaching for your microcope.The market has failed to deliver value for money from the Big 6.All the bestF
Sanzan
12 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica “Maybe the littling of the Big 6 might help” ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Plans to carve up Innogy between parent RWE and rival E.ON added 4.3 billion euros (£3.8 billion) to the market value of Germany’s three largest energy utilities on Monday. Germany’s power companies are reshaping as they look to boost green energy output, shift away from fossil fuels and prepare for Germany’s exit from nuclear power in 2022. The changes will turn RWE into one of Europe’s largest renewable players and at the same time create one of the continent’s top grid and energy retail groups under the aegis of E.ON. “Overall, we view the planned transaction between RWE AG and E.ON SE as positive, from a strategic as well as a financial point of view,” municipal shareholders in RWE, which together hold about 23 percent in the group, said. “We think that this transaction gives significant thrust to the successful implementation of Germany’s energy shift.” Before striking a deal with E.ON, RWE held talks with European peers Enel and Engie and came close to a deal with Spain’s Iberdrola before Christmas, people familiar with the matter said. Shares in Innogy closed up 12.1 percent at 38.70 euros after Sunday’s proposed deal from RWE and E.ON, which plans to offer Innogy’s minority shareholders 40 euros per share, or 5.2 billion euros, a 16 percent premium to Friday’s close. Two bankers who have worked on previous Innogy deals put the chances of a rival bid for the German energy company as “very low” to “zero”, since RWE has already explored alternative deals with other candidates. RWE is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citi on the deal, E.ON has hired Perella and BNP and Goldman Sachs is working for Innogy, the people said.RegardsSI sometimes wonder which end of the telescope you use Frog
frog in a tree
12 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica Mostly agree with you Fly,The trouble is that, as usual, the privatisation was botched by politicians with a rather optimistic, or unrealistic, views about the benefits of a competitive market. What they effectively set up was a cartel that had every incentive not to compete but instead to collude in profiteering from an essential service.Maybe the littling of the Big 6 might help.Cheers,F
Self made hedge operator
12 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica Correct - although when the little guy goes bust - the supply doesn't get switched off, just mandatorily goes to another supplier - which could well be the big 6.We have enough competition. It takes less time to switch than the average facebook user spends on that site per day and a damn site easier than switching current account or away from a SVR mortgage - oh - I might have given the government other ideas.
Flyinthesky
12 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica "We are seeing the littling of the Big 6."That has been the plan for many years, even allowing the smaller players to get off paying the green fees that the bigger players have to pay.So the smaller players should be more agile and cheaper. The only aspect is the security as the outlook has changed and we are now seeing some of the smaller players disappearing altogether.I suppose this is what happens when you try to "fix" things in a regulated market, it seems a good idea at the time until the unintended consequences come back to bite.Lets get some proper competition and force the companies to become more efficient. No point having the cheapest leccy in the street if its switched off
frog in a tree
12 Mar 2018
Re: Its not just Centrica More on the increased uptake of switching reported this morning:[link] says that there has been a 60% rise of electric customers switing compared with Frebruary 2017. Similar levels of switching are likely with gas.No doubt Conn is continuing to say these are low value customers. We are seeing the littling of the Big 6.F
Son of a tiger
09 Mar 2018
Re: Ex dividend You have to hold the shares at market opening on ex-dividend day to qualify for the dividend and still receive the dividend if you sell on ex-dividend day itsel
chummer
09 Mar 2018
Ex dividend Sorry for my ignorance but when it says ex dividend in May 2018 dies that mean I need to hold the share until then in order to get the dividend? Thanks in advance
Sanzan
08 Mar 2018
CentricaÂ’s Play for North America, Distributed Centrica’s Play for North American Energy Dominance Jeff St. John March 08, 2018 Link [link] new company, Centrica Business Solutions, is selling combined heat and power, solar, battery energy storage and standby generators, along with the software and services to put them to use.Last month, U.K.-based Centrica announced it was joining the ranks of European utilities like Enel, Engie and EDF in seeking a piece of the North American distributed energy market -- with a little help from the fact that it also owns one of the continent’s biggest retail energy providers. The new company, Centrica Business Solutions, is actually a combination of acquired and home-built business units with significant existing market share in the U.S. and Canada. Backed by the promise of $910 million in investment through 2020 by its parent company, it’s selling combined heat and power (CHP), solar, battery energy storage and standby generators, along with the software and services to put them to use. This package will be marketed and managed by Direct Energy Business, the commercial services arm of Direct Energy, which is owned by Centrica as well. Direct Energy serves than 4 million customers in the 14 U.S. states and western Canadian provinces that allow for retail competition in energy markets, making it a significant channel partner for the new business. In fact, Direct Energy is already operating some “significant” amounts of demand response with its customers in the Northeast U.S., Stephen Prince, senior vice president overseeing North America commercial operations for Centrica Business Solutions, said in a Wednesday interview. This portfolio, and the software behind it, will now be part of the new company, he said. The company’s presence is heavily weighted toward the Northeast today, as well as Texas. “We’re expanding rapidly [and] organically” in those markets, he said. Centrica is also active in other states, through the customers of several companies acquired over the past few years, he added. The first is Panoramic Power, which makes tiny wireless sensors that clip onto the circuits in a building’s circuit panel, along with the software to collect and analyze the data to provide energy efficiency and management insights. It was bought by Direct Energy for $60 million in late 2015, and has “a significant customer base in North America,” he said. The second is Ener-G Combined Heat and Power and Rudox Power Generation, which provide CHP systems and backup generators, and were bought by Centrica for $212 million in May 2016. Rebranded as Ener-G Rudox last year, the business sells, rents and supports both CHP and standby generation, mainly natural-gas-powered units, in sizes from 30 kilowatts to 2 megawatts, he said. “We have units on top of the U.N. building -- we’re a very well-known brand in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts” and other Northeast competitive energy markets, said Prince. REstore, which Centrica bought for $81 million in November, wasn’t mentioned in Centrica Business Solutions' press release last month. But Prince noted that the Belgian company’s technology, which controls building energy loads at split-second intervals to meet grid operator and energy market needs, will also be part of Centrica Business Solutions’ rollout in North America. “Their virtual power plant capabilities, their aggregation capabilities, their remote control capabilities behind the meter -- all of that software -- has become part of the backbone of our solutions offering in North America," he said. At the same time, “We have our own platform, we have our own operations, we have our own intellectual property around our software. We’re serving customers with Panoramic and integrating it with REstore.” The solar part of the business will be covered by Direct Energy Solar, which last year retreated from the
Nige the snake
08 Mar 2018
Re: this is why cCentrica are going to ... I wouldn't waste my time attending the AGM I am not a share holder and never will be there are better fish to fry like Biom which I bough into about 5 weeks ago
frog in a tree
08 Mar 2018
Its not just Centrica The loss in market share is affecting the Big 6 and not just Centrica. City a.m. reported:"The Big Six energy suppliers have been forced to loosen their grip on the sector as their combined market share fell to a record low, according to fresh data from the regulator.Ofgem said one in five energy consumers are now registered with a small or medium supplier, sending the market share of the Big Six firms down to 79 per cent for electricity and 78 per cent for gas in December 2017, from 84 per cent for both at the end of 2016.Last year, 5.1m electricity customers and 4.1m gas customers switched supplier, the highest number in nearly a decade, and more than a third switched away from one of the six large suppliers – which include Centrica's British Gas, SSE, E.On, EDF Energy, ScottishPower and Npower.The shift away from the largest energy suppliers has been a quick one: just five years ago, challenger firms had a market share of 4.7 per cent for electricity and five per cent for gas.Lawrence Slade, the chief executive of Energy UK, said the news was "further evidence of a highly competitive retail energy market".The government on Monday introduced legislation to place a cap on energy prices of default tariffs to fix the "broken" market, but Kevin Pratt, a consumer affairs expert at Moneysupermarket, said Ofgem's new data "makes a mockery of the constant claims by the government and some industry commentators that the energy market is broken"."Quite simply there has never been a better time to be a domestic energy customer in the UK, with over 65 suppliers and all types of different tariffs to choose from," he said.The government's price cap plan has been criticised by some consumer groups over its potential to backfire by allowing consumers to become complacent and thus less engaged with the market."Any widespread price cap must not hamper this increasing and welcome level of competition," said uSwitch's energy expert Claire Osborne.According to Ofgem, more than half of consumers (57 per cent) are still on poor value default tariffs, which can be as much as £300 more expensive than cheaper deals.“There are still too many consumers who are paying too much for their energy, which is why we are introducing price protection whilst we reform the market, to make competition work for all consumers," said Dermot Nolan, the chief executive of Ofgem, which will be in charge of setting the cap."I suspect that it is mostly fixed term customers that are switching leaving CNA with a higher proportion of customers on SVRs. With HMG promising to clamp down on the SVR scam something will have to give. When will Centrica come up with a genuinely competitive strategy?Cheers,F
viko
08 Mar 2018
Bca marketplace share look cheap Centrica shares dropping bca on the up
Les Berksley
06 Mar 2018
Re: Motley Fear <More arguments from Motley in favour of BP> FrogThey are not the views of Motley Fool but the views of one of their many writers whose ever changing opinions they are keen to disassociate their own views from. The views of the authors, which change too frequently for my liking, differ from the official recommendations Motley Fool make in their subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. So if one wishes to accurately quote the views of Motley Fool, one should subscribe. Do you, Frog, honestly think Motley Fool are going to give there genuine opinions to non-subscribers?the way, Frog, you should have considered this difference before giving your recent strong advice to Centrica shareholders to sell up based on a random article by another author Rupert Hargreaves, which you portrayed incorrectly as being advice from Motley Fool. Motley Fool's advice to their subscribers may differ from that of the author.Les (Berkeley) - Frog's mentor , but will he ever learn?
riverside red
06 Mar 2018
Re: this is why cCentrica are going to bomb Try attending the AGM, your audience is captive.
riverside red
06 Mar 2018
Re: Motley Fear The polar views are a trend on all shares from this collection of blogs. What makes me smile is the rider that inavariably the author doesn't own any of the shares even when they are bullish.
