British Gas owner Centrica has reported its worst results since 2015, resulting in a massive 17 per cent share price slide.

It’s full year results for 2019 were a big blow for investors, showing a massive 35 per cent drop in adjusted operating profit to £901m, causing share prices to dip to a low of 71.82p at the time of writing. The results also revealed an operating loss of £849m compared to a profit of £987m in 2018.

The group has been hampered by a £476m write down in the value of its oil and gas production assets due to lower commodity prices and it has been hit hard by a cap on energy prices that were introduced last year. Nuclear outages have also taken their toll and Centrica has been forced to admit that it lost 286,000 energy accounts in the past year, leading to a total revenue fall of nearly three per cent.

Times have been turbulent for the gas supplier since last summer when share prices fell to a level not seen for 20 years, and its dividend was cut by half, but things had briefly picked up last October when it looked like Centrica’s much vaunted turnaround plan might be about to gather pace.

So, can things improve for Centrica or are there further blows on the way for investors?

The group is still searching for a new Chief Executive after Ian Conn announced he would be leaving following a tough five years at the helm. In a further blow, Chairman Charles Berry who had been leading the hunt for Conn’s successor is now on a leave of absence due to an undisclosed medical condition although he says the search will go on.

Despite his imminent departure, Conn tried to put a positive spin on the latest results highlighting the company’s cost savings and saying that they had kept operating cash flow and net debt within targets, but analysts were not convinced.

Analysts at Jefferies were disappointed by the fact that Centrica expected earnings for 2020 are predicted to be ‘broadly flat’ year on year after a previous expectation of 9p a share. Jefferies described the outlook for 2020 as ‘materially below our expectations’ and Neil Wilson, chief analyst at Markets.com said: “Much like Royal Mail and BT, this monopoly incumbent has lost its way in the new world of competition.”

Conn did point out that the number of customers switching their energy accounts away from British Gas had slowed down and that the group had made £315m worth of cost savings, with another £350 million planned for the year ahead.

Analysts at Brewin Dolphin were heartened by this saying: “Management has identified that drastic action is required and is duly taking it to make Centrica a smaller, simpler and more competitive business.”

They did go on to point out that there is plenty more work to be done though, which seems to be the general sentiment across the market after this latest desultory update.