London, April 27, 2026, 16:07 BST
British Gas owner Centrica plc disclosed on Monday that two non-executive directors bought shares in the company, a small board-dealing notice that landed as investors track the group’s push into longer-term energy infrastructure. Frank Mastiaux acquired 1,208 ordinary shares and Sue Whalley bought 468, both at £2.084 each on the London Stock Exchange, a regulatory filing showed.
The timing matters more than the size. Centrica told investors in February that 2025 earnings were lower than in 2024, but it also raised its full-year dividend by 22%, completed a £2 billion share buyback and said it was pausing repurchases to prioritise investment. Chief Executive Chris O’Shea said projects such as Sizewell C, Grain LNG and its meter asset business were “laying the groundwork for more stable and predictable earnings.” Centrica Plc
Centrica shares were quoted at 208.8p at 15:36 London time, up 0.34%, the company’s investor page showed. The directors’ purchase price of £2.084, or 208.4p, sat close to that level.
The filing was made under Article 19 of market-abuse rules, which require senior insiders — often called PDMRs, or persons discharging managerial responsibilities — to report share transactions. Mastiaux’s purchase was worth £2,517.47, while Whalley’s was worth £975.31.
But the transactions do not change the operating risk facing the group. Centrica’s 2025 adjusted EBITDA — a profit measure before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, with company adjustments — fell to £1.417 billion from £2.305 billion a year earlier, while free cash flow swung to a £167 million outflow as capital expenditure rose. The company also cited lower achieved prices, weaker gas and power trading conditions, the pause in Rough storage activity and nuclear outages.
The board-dealing notice follows a run of smaller strategic moves. On Friday, Centrica Energy said it had signed an agreement with Stream BioEnergy to take 100% of the biomethane from a waste-to-gas plant under development near Cork, Ireland. Biomethane is renewable gas made from organic waste; offtake means a buyer agrees to take and market the output. Cassim Mangerah, managing director of Centrica Energy, said the project “turns waste into clean, renewable energy,” while Stream BioEnergy co-founder Kevin Fitzduff said the deal would help “establish biomethane as a reliable part” of Ireland’s energy mix. Centrica Plc
The peer backdrop is not just retail energy supply. In UK utilities, National Grid is the clearest recent comparison point because Centrica and Energy Capital Partners agreed last year to buy National Grid’s Grain LNG terminal for about £1.5 billion, Reuters reported. The terminal is Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas import terminal by tank capacity, making the deal a direct move into infrastructure that National Grid exited.
Centrica has also used partnerships to chase power demand from heavy users facing grid delays. In March, Reuters reported that Centrica and Ceres Power would deploy solid oxide fuel cell systems for commercial and industrial customers in the UK and Europe. Ceres CEO Phil Caldwell called the technology “modular and can be deployed faster.” Reuters
Monday’s director purchase is not a trading update, and the sums are modest. It is a governance data point: board members are adding small holdings while the larger investment case still rests on slower assets — nuclear, LNG, meters, storage and green gas — delivering steadier returns over time.
