Centrica takes £196m hit on IT systems

UK energy supplier Centrica has taken a £196m hit on its balance sheet after writing-down the value of redundant IT systems it no longer uses.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, revealed the exceptional non-cash charge of £196m in its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2006, in which the group posted a five per cent drop in profits to £1.4bn.

The write-down relates to software that Centrica used for cross-selling when it owned the AA and OneTel. Centrica sold the AA to a private equity group in 2004 and sold OneTel to The Carphone Warehouse in 2005.

A Centrica spokesman said: "We don't need the cross-selling capability for the AA and OneTel."

Centrica said the £196m is future depreciation in value of the parts of the system it no longer needs, rather than the initial cost of the system itself, and added that the write-down will save the group £30m in depreciation costs in 2007.