Centrica boss picks up £3.6m in bonuses and share awards despite profits plunge

British Gas owner Centrica has revealed its boss landed £3.6 million in bonuses and share awards last year despite seeing earnings nearly halve.

The power giant’s annual report revealed chief executive Chris O’Shea picked up a £1.4 million annual bonus and £2.2 million in long-term share awards for 2025, on top of his £1.04 million salary.

The payouts come in spite of full-year results also out on Thursday showing Centrica’s underlying earnings slumped to £814 million last year, down from £1.55 billion in 2024, as its household supply arm was knocked by an £80 million warm weather hit.

Earnings in its household energy supply business tumbled 39% to £163 million as warmer weather meant customers turned down their central heating thermostats, and as customers switched to cheaper fixed tariff deals.

Mr O’Shea’s total pay package stood at £4.73 million for 2025, down from £5.08 million in 2024, according to the report.

The hefty bonuses for Centrica’s top boss also come despite a shareholder rebellion at last year’s annual general meeting, when nearly 40% of shareholders voted against the board’s pay plans.

Mr O’Shea has courted controversy with his pay in recent years, having previously admitted there was “no point” trying to justify an £8.2 million package in 2023.

The latest report showed he will also see his pay increase by 3% to £1.13 million a year from April 1, adding that the wider 22,000-strong workforce will also have average pay rises of 3% to 4%.

His ratio of pay when compared with the average employee salary at Centrica stood at 71:1 last year.

In its latest annual report, Centrica said: “The committee believes that the adjustments to Chris O’Shea’s remuneration in 2025 aligned with competitive market rates given the size and complexity of Centrica.

“Chris’ performance and experience over the last five years since his appointment as the group chief executive warrants positioning his pay between the median and upper quartile of other CEOs in the FTSE 100.”

Shares in the firm fell 5% in Thursday afternoon trading, having dropped as much as 10% earlier in the day after revealing in full-year results that it was pausing share buybacks to prioritise an investment programme.

Mr O’Shea said: “The environment has been challenging, and performance has varied across the business.

“However, we have remained disciplined, delivering strong operational performance and achieving customer growth across all our retail businesses simultaneously for the first time in over a decade.”

He added: “Pausing the buyback enables us to prioritise investment that creates lasting value for shareholders, while continuing to deliver the reliable, affordable energy that households and businesses need to power economic growth through the transition.”

It saw UK and Ireland household customer numbers increase by 1% to 7.96 million over the year, with 7.5 million in the UK, though this was boosted by 91,000 after taking on the customer base of failed suppliers Rebel Energy and Tomato Energy last year.

The gains from the two collapsed suppliers “offset a small decrease in underlying customers”, it said.

British Gas was last year overtaken by rival Octopus Energy as the UK’s largest household energy supplier.

Cornwall Insight this week forecast a 7% reduction in Ofgem’s energy price cap when the next quarterly change is announced next Wednesday, with a predicted reduction of £117 to £1,641 a year for a typical dual fuel household from April 1.

This follows the announcement last November by Chancellor Rachel Reeves that £150 would be cut from the average household bill from April by scrapping the Energy Company Obligation scheme introduced by the Tories in government.