British Gas owner Centrica to sell Canadian oil and gas joint venture stake to consortium

The consortium, which includes MIE Holdings and Mercuria, would purchase the stake for £240m.

British Gas axes 500 jobs with closure of its loft and cavity wall insulation business — Centrica has about 33,000 staff, majority of whom are employed with British Gas Reuters

British multinational utility firm Centrica has announced that intends to sell 60% of its stake in a joint venture oil and gas exploration and production enterprise to a consortium of firms. The deal is expected to cost £240m ($305m).

The purchasing consortium consists of Hong Kong-based MIE Holdings, private equity group Can-China Global Resource Fund, and Geneva-based commodity trading firm Mercuria Energy Group, according to a Reuters report.

Centrica, a FTSE 100 constituent, owns British Gas, which is a member of the "Big Six" energy firms and is the UK's largest domestic supplier of energy. The Windsor-based group was able to generate a comprehensive net profit of £1.3bn during 2016 after incurring a loss of £1.4bn the year prior.

Centrica's cash flows also jumped by nearly 130% to £2bn in 2016. Its operations are mainly confined to Europe and North America.

MIE Holdings is a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed oil and gas firm. It managed to bring its net loss down by 13% to 1.3 billion renminbi during the 2016 financial year. The entity's operations are mainly focused around China, Kazakhastan, and the US.

Shares of Centrica and MIE Holdings rose by 2.52% and 1.43% respectively during UK morning trading hours.