STOCKS TO WATCH: UK gas owner Centrica can waive dividend

Centrica boss Chris O’Shea is probably sleeping in a tin hat. The British Gas owner continued to open fire from all sides.

O’Shea has been criticized for working from home as complaints run high. And British Gas has apologized for failing to fix thousands of broken boilers.

Centrica posted its annual results this week.

Life is gas: Centrica profits are set at around £1.6bn, which will upset those calling for an income tax on energy companies

Profits are set to be around £1.6 billion, which will upset those calling for the energy corporate tax.

It will also show customer growth for the first time since 2010, after it lured stuck customers away from bankrupt rivals.

But will it recover its divi? HSBC said the board must ‘consider the potential opportunity of declaring a dividend’ amid rising bills.

The bank assumes that there will be no payments in the second year of operation.

That would be a rare sensibility from an energy giant, but would infuriate armchair investors who rely on dividends.

O’Shea may need to retreat.

WPP investors hope the company can profit from the price announcements

Investors in WPP, which considers Mars and Uber as advertising clients, will hope that it can benefit from the fact that brands want to carefully manage their messages to customers about price increases when abused. raging release.

The advertising giant releases its annual results this week.

Shares are at a 4-year high after recovering from the Covid shock but one major shareholder complained: ‘Is this a real recovery or just a dead cat being tossed around? It could easily be the latter. ‘

Barclays CFO last prepared annual results?

Barclays CFO Tushar Morzaria will prepare the bank’s annual results this week – possibly the last.

Rumors are rife throughout the City that his departure could be announced on Wednesday after nearly a decade as head of finance.

Morzaria was a rarity: a banker respected by the media as well as by investors. He helped get the bank through tough times.

He joins under chief executive Antony Jenkins, who was ousted in 2015.

He then worked under Jes Staley, who quit last year in protest at the Financial Conduct Authority’s report on his ties to sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein .

CS Venkatakrishnan, also a former JPMorgan, has taken over, but Morzaria’s time under ‘Venkat’ could be limited if he’s willing to pack up.

Barclays declined to comment.

Israel Englander hedge fund bets on Evraz

American investor Israel Englander started trading stocks in high school and is now worth $10 billion.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that his hedge fund, Millennium, just made an intervention.

It was the first short seller in eight years to bet on shares of Russian steel and mining group Evraz earlier this month as tensions over Ukraine weighed on the stock.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last weekend that Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has seen £500m written off the value of Evraz he holds since the end of January while Millennium will earn cash with a small profit when held for short periods of time.