CEO pay at British owner of Bord Gáis and Whitegate Power Station leaps to over £8.2m in 2023

Centrica's Bord Gáis Energy business in the Republic includes the Whitegate Power Station in Co Cork.

The chief executive of British Gas-group Centrica, which also owns Bord Gáis and the Whitegate Power Station in the Republic, got a bumper pay raise last year while millions of households struggled with energy debt.

Chris O’Shea’s total pay in 2023 was over £8.2m (€9.6m), up from almost £4.5m a year earlier, the company said in its annual report. The pay package includes £810,000 in salary, a £1.42m annual bonus, £5.9m in long-term bonus aside from some pension and benefits, the company said. With effect from April, Mr O’Shea’s salary will increase to £855,000. 

“Centrica’s performance and share price growth are the most significant factors that determine our CEO’s remuneration,” Carol Arrowsmith, head of the firm’s remuneration committee said in a statement. Mr O’Shea has “beaten nearly all the stretching performance targets set by the committee”, she said. 

The bumper payout is likely to draw criticism as energy bills in Ireland and Britain remain high even wholesale gas prices and broader inflation is dropping. Centrica stepped up payouts to its shareholders after profits at British Gas, its retail energy unit in Britain, jumped. British Gas serves 7.5 million customers, while Bord Gáis Energy supplies gas and electricity to 503,000 residential and business customers and is the second largest domestic supplier in the Republic. It also owns the Whitegate Power Station in Co Cork.   

Centrica in February had hiked dividends by about 33% after annual profits surged last year, partly driven by one-off benefits as the British and Irish governments provided help for consumers struggling with high-energy costs. 

Bord Gáis Energy had posted an operating profit of £1m last year, down from £31m in 2022, "reflecting pricing pressure in energy supply as we absorbed higher energy costs, particularly in the first half of 2023", Centrica said in February. "The second half of the year saw the beginnings of more sustainable energy supply performance, with continued easing in commodity prices affording us the opportunity to pass on price reductions to customers," it said at the time. 

In the annual report, Centrica said its Ftse-100-listed shares rose by 45% last year. "At the same time, the company has supported our customers through the cost of living crisis including £140m committed since 2022 to help them with their energy costs," it said. "The turnaround of the company over the last three years is credit to the management team led by Chris O’Shea," according to the the annual report. 

• Bloomberg, Irish Examiner and Reuters staff