LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Shell (SHEL.L) said on Thursday it was considering exiting its home energy retail business in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany following “difficult market conditions”.
European energy suppliers have grappled with soaring wholesale prices and government efforts to protect consumers from rising electricity bills over the past year.
Shell said it had carried out a strategic review of the three businesses, which could take several months, but had not made any decisions about their futures.
Shell is pumping nearly $1.5 billion in cash and credit into its UK energy retail business in 2022 to help it weather huge swings in electricity prices that have brought down several rival UK utilities.
Its UK business, Shell Energy Retail, has 1.4 million customers, while its German business has 110,000 customers and its Dutch business has 15,000 customers.
Shell said its wholesale and business-to-business (B2B) energy supply business was excluded from the strategic review, as was its home energy supply business in the US and Australia.
Shell is on track to post annual profits of more than $30 billion in 2022 when it reports results on Feb. 7, despite struggling retail operations, thanks to soaring oil and gas prices.
Reporting by Ron Bousso Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter
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