SHARES in British Gas owner Centrica sank 16.3 per cent to 71.8p yesterday as the firm posted a £1.1bn gross loss for the last financial year.

A combination of lower commodities pricing and the impact of the new energy price cap saw the company swing into the red from a £585m profit the year before.

The plunge means that shares have fallen from 300p to 70p over the course of outgoing chief executive Iain Conn's five-year tenure.

The FTSE firm was also hit by exceptional charges worth £1.1bn due to a combination of falling commodity price forecasts, writedowns from its nuclear power assets, and a £356m restructuring charge.

Revenues were nearly three per cent lower at £22.7bn, while earnings per share fell 35 per cent to 7.3p.

The utilities company lost 286,000 customers from British Gas' energy supply business last year, far fewer than the 742,000 lost the year before.

Centrica confirmed that it was still seeking to offload its offshore business Spirit Energy, which was hit with a £476m charge, as well as its 20 per cent stake in the UK's nuclear power station fleet.

Conn said the year had been a "challenging" one but said a much improved second half would give the utilities giant "momentum" for 2020.

CENTRICA 90 P85 80 75 13 Feb 71.82 70 65 7Feb 10 Feb 11Feb 12 Feb 13 Feb

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