Boss of British Gas owner under scrutiny over £4.5m pay packet | Centrica

The boss of the British Gas owner, Centrica, is expected to come under pressure over his bumper £4.5m pay packet as shareholders gather for the company’s annual meeting in Leeds.

Before the meeting, Centrica said annual profits were expected to come in at the top end of estimates, driven by “significantly higher” profits at its retail division.

Centrica’s profits tripled last year to an all-time high of £3.3bn, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove oil and gas prices sharply higher and contributed to a rise in household energy bills.

The Unite union has urged Centrica shareholders to reject the remuneration package for the chief executive, Chris O’Shea, including what it called an “obscene” bonus, at the annual meeting on Tuesday morning.

On top of his annual salary of £790,000, O’Shea is set to receive bonus payouts of £3.7m, including £1.4m in cash and a long-term share bonus of £2.3m. Last year he waived a £1.1m bonus, saying he could not take it “given the hardships faced by our customers”.

This year’s pay packet, which comes during the cost of living crisis and the prepayment meter scandal, has angered consumer groups and unions.

British Gas was forced to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters in February because of concerns over its treatment of vulnerable customers, and is subject to an investigation by the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem. Agents acting for the company made a third of all warrant of entry applications in England and Wales last year, the Guardian revealed.

Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Centrica’s shareholders need to vote his remuneration package down. Mr O’Shea’s obscene bonus is just one glaring example of the epidemic of profiteering afflicting the country. Corporate greedflation is breaking our economy and something needs to be done about it.”

An influential shareholder, abrdn, has said it would vote against Centrica’s remuneration report.

It said the long-term incentive plan grant awarded to O’Shea in 2020 was not “meaningfully reduced to reflect the depressed share price during Europe’s initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Abrdn added that it did not regard the chief executive’s annual bonus of £1.4m as “reflective of the impact of forced prepayment installations on vulnerable customers during the ongoing cost of living crisis and the current ongoing probe by Ofgem”.

Centrica declined to comment.