How stable are Octopus Energy? Are they strong enough to weather the current storm of bankruptcies?

[Inskip75]

And possibly others too - although not definite

https://news.sky.com/story/octopus-ener ... s-12417304

[AE-NMidlands]

Let's hope it is not another establishment fit-up to sink a non-establishment competitor...

I still resent the Coop bank being sunk by buying the Britannia BS - after taking advice (i.e paying a huge amount for input ) from one of the big "accountancy" firms. Clean bill of health... Business loans hopelessly unrealisable... Coop bank goes bust. Crooks.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... mers-ofgem says

Both Octopus and Bulb say that they provide their customers with 100% renewable electricity from solar, wind and hydro. Any tie-up between the two would create a large supplier with almost 5 million customers that could pose a stronger competitive threat to the giants of the energy sector.

Bulb’s financial advisers at Lazard have set up a data room to provide potential backers with documents and key information so they can review its finances.

A senior City source said Bulb had been looking to raise funds for some time and there was no reason to believe the company was facing an imminent threat to its survival or seeking a bailout. However, the current turmoil, with predictions of a difficult winter ahead, may mean that it struggles to find new backers.

A

[dan_b]

Octopus secures 600 million in funding from Al Gore

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... by-al-gore

[dan_b]

Three more energy suppliers have just gone bust this afternoon

ENSTROGA
Igloo Energy
and Symbio Energy

[AE-NMidlands]

Which will be the next to go?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... y-supplier

Ofgem prepares for looming failure of a leading energy supplier

Energy regulator understood to have put City firm Teneo on standby to act as ‘special administrator’
A City firm has been put on standby to take control of a large energy company amid fears that one could collapse soon, overwhelming the existing safety net put in place by the regulator, Ofgem.

The management consulting company Teneo is understood to have held talks with the regulator about acting as “special administrator” under a government scheme, as yet untested, for handling large energy company failures.

In theory, the company would take on the operations of a failed energy supplier to ensure no interruption of service or supply to customers.

The backup option, first reported by Sky News, is being readied in light of mounting concern that Ofgem’s “Supplier of Last Resort” system, under which a healthy energy supplier agrees to take on customers from a collapsed rival, is at breaking point. Etc.

I would have thought that it was obvious that making another company take on and supply more customers with energy below cost price must cause snowballing failures.
Interestingly a woman from the suppliers federation said on R4 this morning that they have been pressing the govt to change the rules for years now as it was obviously not a viable system.
A

[nowty]

Wow, I know Octopus took over the customers of Avro, but I didn't realise how many customers Avro had. I think Octopus had 1.5m customers before so that's a hell of an increase to take on. Either they are very confident of their finances or Ofgem is compensating them appropriately.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58959620

[AE-NMidlands]

Wow, I know Octopus took over the customers of Avro, but I didn't realise how many customers Avro had. I think Octopus has 1.5m customers before so that's a hell of an increase to take on. Either they are very confident of their finances or Ofgem is compensating them appropriately.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58959620

I think the fundamental problem is that the new supplier doesn't get compensated in any way at all, but has to take on new customers at the current capped prices even if that is below the wholesale price. Which is why some of the big six are not playing ball any more... I imagine (I really hope) that Octopus are totally on top of their game regarding what business they are taking on.

It has unhealthy echoes of the Coop Bank (almost or effectively) going bust after being "advised" on the acquisition of the Britannia Building Society by one of the big 4 know-all Management accountant/consultancies. Funny that they walked away unscathed but the bank was sunk...

[Mr Gus]

"GOTO" ..have now gone (22000 customers)
Announced after 6pmm (just past) ..but why did parent company bp let it sink?

I wrote this whilst falling asleep & had to edit it Tues morning, apologies.

[Stinsy]

The system is broken. That is clear. You can’t have sympathy for energy companies who signed customers up on super-low fixed rate tariffs then just assumed they’d be able to buy the power to fulfil those contracts for cheap. However when there is a government-mandated cap that is below the wholesale price it becomes a game of “how long can you last?”. The “big 6” can obviously weather a longer storm than a newcomer. Maybe they wanted to thin out the competition so have been building a trap?

Hopefully we’ll see 15GW of wind sometime soon and the nukes will come back online as planned in the next few weeks.

[Sunrisemike]

Getting there, 14.1 just now.