Acquisition

Acquisition

Centrica PLC

BRITISH GAS BUSINESS TO ACQUIRE CONNAUGHT GAS AND ELECTRICITY SERVICES COMPLIANCE BUSINESSES, GAINING 400 SERVICE ENGINEERS AND MORE THAN 20,000 COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS

Centrica plc, the parent company of British Gas, today announced that its British Gas Business division has acquired the assets of the gas and electricity services businesses of Connaught Compliance, the trading division of Connaught Group plc, for £11.2 million, which will be settled in cash on completion.

The acquisition will bring British Gas Business an approximately 600 strong work force including approximately 400 gas and electricity engineers who specialise in the installation, service and maintenance of commercial gas boilers and electrical systems, and in excess of 20,000 customer contracts, mainly in the private sector. It also includes Connaught’s training academy in South Wales. This transaction marks a significant step forward in British Gas Business’ strategy to build a complete energy solutions business through the provision of service and maintenance contracts to its 750,000 customers.

British Gas Business has now made five acquisitions in the energy services and management sector in the last two years. Alongside the previous acquisitions of BMSi, Semplice Energy, Energy and Building Management Solutions and Newnova Group, the acquisition of the gas and electricity services businesses of Connaught Compliance firmly establishes British Gas Business in the provision of a broad range of business energy services, including energy management, energy efficiency, building controls and renewable technologies. The 600 Connaught employees joining British Gas Business will be additional to the 5,100 new jobs in insulation, smart metering and energy efficiency which British Gas has already announced over the past two years.

Kanat Emiroglu, managing director of British Gas Business, said “This acquisition gives us the platform that is needed to develop and rapidly build a complete energy solutions business and accelerates our growth strategy in the business energy services market, which is expected to be worth £2 billion by 2015¹. It is great news for the people at Connaught, its customers and for British Gas Business’s existing customers.”

ENDS

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Contacts
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Centrica Investor Relations:		01753 494 900
British Gas press office:		0800 1077015

Notes to editors

¹ The business energy services market is expected to grow to £2 billion over the next five years based on market data including Federation of Environmental Trade Association, Building Control Industry Association (BCIA), UKCEED, Energy Systems Trade Association, Carbon Trust, and SMT Consulting.

² Centrica plc is acquiring the assets of the gas and electricity services business of Connaught Compliance and Connaught’s training academy through its wholly owned subsidiary, British Gas Services (Commercial) Ltd.

About British Gas & British Gas Business

• British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country, is part of the Centrica group of companies. For more information go to: http://www.britishgas.co.uk
• British Gas Business is the B2B unit of British Gas and has over 1 million supply point contracts and 750,000 commercial customers, making it the largest energy supplier to small businesses in the UK.
• British Gas employs 28,000 employees across the UK
• The 5,100 new jobs include 2,500 in smart metering, 1,100 in insulation and 1,500 in other green jobs.