Octopus Energy Poised to Embrace Shell Customers with Open Arms

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London (Parliament Politic Magazine) – Octopus Energy is talking a lot with Shell about buying the people who use energy in their homes from Shell. If this happens, Octopus Energy could become even bigger and compete with British Gas to provide gas and electricity to the most homes in the UK. Octopus Energy, led by Greg Jackson, is the top choice to buy Shell Energy Retail. This comes after six months of Shell thinking about what to do with this part of their business.

Many Groups Interested To Buy Buisness From Shell

People who know about this said on Friday that there are other groups interested in buying a business from Shell. They said that Octopus Energy is one of these interested groups, but they are not the only one, and a better offer could still come up.

However, they also said that Shell expects to make an agreement to sell the business in the fall. If this happens, Octopus Energy taking over would mean they would provide energy to around 6.5 million homes in the UK. That’s not as much as British Gas, which is owned by Centrica, but more than almost all the other companies that do the same in the UK.

On Friday, it wasn’t clear if Octopus Energy would also want to keep the smaller energy retail businesses that Shell is selling in Germany and the Netherlands. The sources said that a person named Mr. Jackson wants to sell the UK broadband customers from Shell. There are about 500,000 of these customers, and they are also being sold.

Octopus Energy Might Buy Another Company Called Shell 

In the spring, Shell started a special process to sell something. They wanted to get rid of a part of their business to save about $300 million every year. The company Octopus Energy might be buying another company called Shell. 

This news came out on the same day when a group that watches over the energy industry said that the highest price for energy would be a bit lower this winter, which is good for people’s wallets.

The person in charge of the group, Jonathan Brearley, said that the cost of energy might still go up and down a lot for some time. Before this, there were other companies like Ovo Energy and British Gas that were also interested in buying the same company, Shell.

Octopus Energy has become much bigger recently. They bought another company called Bulb Energy, which had many customers. This happened because Bulb Energy had some financial problems and had to close down. There’s a bank called Lazard that is helping with the sale of Shell’s business.

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Octopus Energy The Top Choice To Buy UK Shell Energy

This afternoon, there’s news saying that Octopus Energy might be the top choice to buy a company called Shell Energy in the UK. Shell Energy has internet and phone services, and also provides energy to many people’s homes. Octopus Energy is interested in buying Shell Energy, but they haven’t made it official yet. This means that other companies like Ovo Energy could still try to buy it too.

Right now, Shell Energy UK has about half a million customers who use their internet and phone services, and around 1.4 million customers who get energy from them. There are also about 2,000 people who work for Shell Energy UK. But Shell Energy UK has had some problems in the last few years, like losing a lot of money, around £220 million, in 2020 and 2021. This year is critical for the company. 

Shell wants to make a deal to sell Shell Energy sometime this fall, which is a season. Many people think that whoever buys it might decide to sell the internet and phone services of Shell Energy to someone else. This is called “divesting.”

Also, the best 5% of people taking part got a reward of at least £4.80. Octopus Energy and UK Power Networks joined together to start the ‘Power-ups’ program. People in the ‘Power-ups’ plan are told ahead of time when they can use extra power. At these times, these people can get free electricity and it won’t cost them anything.

Beth Malcolm

Beth Malcolm is Scottish based Journalist at Heriot-Watt University studying French and British Sign Language. She is originally from the north west of England but is living in Edinburgh to complete her studies.