British gas owner, Centrica (LON:CNA) announced Thursday they will cut 4,000 jobs after the company reported a weak second half in 2017.
Profit fell sharply 17 percent to £1,252 million and adjusted earnings were down 22 percent to £698 million, compared to £895 million in 2016.
The poor results were due to bad performance in the North American unit as well as pressure from government regulations in the UK energy market during last year.
“We regret this deeply, and I am determined to restore shareholder value and confidence. The underlying trends driving our strategy are clear, as are the distinctive capabilities we have to benefit from them,” said Ian Conn, group chief executive.
In addition, there have been concerns over losing customers to digital services. The company lost about 750,000 domestic customers in 2017.
Although Centrica did meet their financial targets for 2017, it wasn’t enough to please the market and shares sank over 40% in a 52 week period. Nevertheless, they have proposed a flat share dividend of 12p for the whole year.
The FTSE-100 company also announced they will be selling 20 percent of their stake in Electricite de France by 2020, part of their UK nuclear business.Â
Centrica expressed their intentions to focus on the customers and reinforcing the core of traditional energy supply and in-home services in 2018.
“We are committed to delivering attractive returns and growth over the medium term. Our focus today is on performance delivery and financial discipline – on demonstrating top line growth as we deliver improved service and new propositions for our customers, and driving efficiency as hard as possible to underpin our competitiveness,” said Conn.
Shares were up 3.78 percent, trading at 137.2p, as of 11:30 (GMT).