Yahoo Finance Npower Boss Leaves Firm After Shock Results
Npower's boss has left the energy supplier after it revealed "unexpectedly negative" half-year results - including a customer exodus.
Paul Massara, who has led the 'big six' supplier since January 2013, departed as chief executive "by mutual consent", the firm's German parent company RWE said.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) was announced earlier this month that profits for the UK business had plunged by two-thirds.
Npower's half-year results showed that it had lost 300,000 customer accounts in the past year as the supplier was plagued by problems with its billing system.
A new database introduced 18 months ago led to multiple billings while other customers received no demands for cash at all.
The company has previously admitted issues with the bills of 700,000 households and the industry regulator ordered it last month to give free energy to customers whose complaints it had failed to resolve on time.
An investigation, which OFGEM began over a year ago, is continuing and could yet lead to fines.
In a statement, RWE said it was "acting on the unexpectedly negative mid-year result for 2015," with chief operating officer Paul Coffey confirmed as Mr Massara's replacement.
A wider shake-up has also resulted in the departure of npower's chief financial officer.
RWE (Xetra: 703712 - news) boss Peter Terium said: "At this time we need a CEO at RWE npower who will focus on fixing the basic process improvements and has a track record of implementing operational process changes.
"In his previous functions, Paul Coffey has repeatedly demonstrated this expertise.
"We are therefore delighted to have him as CEO of the UK supply business and as Country Chair UK."
Mr Coffey was previously chief operating officer at RWE Innogy before transferring to npower in April.
He said: "It is clear that RWE npower's domestic business is not performing in the way that our customers, shareholders or our employees demand.
"Since joining npower in April this year, I have been hugely impressed by the energy and commitment of our staff to do the right thing for our customers. This is one of the fundamental ingredients of future success for this business.
"I am looking forward to working with my management team, those already in npower and those joining, as we build on the foundations already laid to refocus our efforts to improve our performance."
He has a wealth of issues to confront on top of the billing woes, with RWE admitting the outlook for its UK energy supply business "had to be corrected downwards considerably."
Plunging wholesale gas costs are pressuring firms to follow the lead of British Gas and cut bills further while the industry could yet face price caps following a Competition and Markets Authority investigation which concluded homes and businesses had been paying too much for their energy .
