It’s no coincidence that profit warnings or dividend cuts often swiftly follow the arrival of a new chief executive. Yet Iain Conn, the new chief executive of Centrica, managed to surpass the City’s expectations as he threw in everything but the kitchen sink.
Analysts had assumed that last year’s dividend was safe, expecting the former BP executive to take the unusual step of signalling a likely cut this year instead. Yesterday he decided not to wait, opting to “rebase” last year’s payout by 30 per cent to head off a credit rating downgrade.
It is the first time that the dividend has been cut in Centrica’s 18-year history and the full year payout of 13.5p for last year is the lowest since 2009. Centrica