The boss of energy company Ovo accused of being a ‘fat cat making the profits’ and ‘ripping people off’ amid soaring household bills is a billionaire – despite his company making huge losses in recent years – and maintains a picturesque five-bed mansion in the Cotswolds as a weekend home.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder and chief executive of the UK’s third largest supplier of gas and electricity, has amassed a wealth of £1.34billion which is said to have doubled in the past year alone.
Graduate from Edinburgh University, the 45-year old is the founder of Vertical Aerospace, which produces zero-emission planes, and Kaluza, the grid technology company Kaluza.
He models his business on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire and bought Kensington Roof Gardens – Branson’s former flagship party venue in London.
Yet despite Fitzpatrick’s personal wealth doubling in the past year, his energy firm has racked up losses totalling almost £300million over three years, the Mail on Sunday revealed.
Net losses at Imagination Industries – Ovo’s holding company – have widened in each of the past three years, hitting £142million in the year to December 2020, the latest available. Net borrowings for 2020 were more than £400million.
His estate manager said that Fitzpatrick’s 5-bedroom house in the Cotswolds is being used only as a weekend getaway home.
Set in 12 acres, the country house is surrounded by beautiful scenery.
MailOnline reported that his estate manager had told MailOnline in January that although he is at work it was unlikely that he would make it to the house today. He’s only there for weekends, and even so, it’s not every weekend.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, chief executive at OVO Energy Company (pictured), described the next months as “a winter unlike any other”
Ovo Energy boss Stephen Fitzpatrick owns this sprawling, five-bedroom home in the Cotswolds that has its own swimming pool and is now worth in the region of £3.2million – but locals say he uses it only as a weekend home
Ovo Energy was founded by Mr Fitzpatrick in 2009.
Ovo was founded by a Belfast-born entrepreneur after earning thousands of pounds as a trader at Lloyds and Societe Generale.
Quitting just prior to the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, Fitzpatrick launched Ovo in 2009 along with his wife Sophy in an attempt to disrupt the industry with a company founded on the principles of ‘simplicity, transparency, honesty and fairness’.
The pair invested £350,000 to launch the business and set about challenging the status quo maintained by the Big Six energy suppliers at the time who preyed on customers unlikely to switch providers.
In autumn 2013, Fitzpatrick won plaudits when he publicly called out large energy companies in front of the House of Commons energy and climate change select committee for unnecessarily increasing prices for consumers.
But a year later he was heavily criticised when it was revealed he took a whopping £2million out of his fledgling energy company to buy his lavish Cotswolds home, despite Ovo having net liabilities of more than £9m for the previous calendar year.
Fitzpatrick will not be short of cash in 2022 as the landscape for energy is completely different.
Ovo CEO Martin Lewis clashed on Monday with MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis. Lewis stated that Fitzpatrick was accused of “sitting there speaking like this while you’re making profits, ripping off people” as Britain’s families prepare for unprecedented energy price increases.
Ovo’s founder said, “There are many companies making extraordinarily large profits. They are not necessarily doing wrong, but they make a lot.
I started the retail energy business thirteen years ago. It is only retail. Our only focus is on customers. Fitzpatrick stressed that there are no investment interests except what is best for customers.
Annual household bills are set to rocket to an average of £3,549 next month – around triple what they were last winter – after regulator Ofgem hiked the energy price cap.
Fitzpatrick has said that helping low income families with energy bills ‘has to be the first order of business’ for new Prime Minister Liz Truss, with annual gas and electricity bills predicted to reach £7,263 by next April.
‘If we don’t use every available moment over the next 12 weeks to solve this, we are going to see a winter like never before with people going hungry and going cold and the NHS being overwhelmed by the health impacts of the energy crisis,’ Fitzpatrick said, laying out a ten point plan for the government to help combat rising prices.
Ovo was firing when it suggested in January that homeowners save heating costs by ‘cuddling up’ their pets or cleaning their homes.
Ovo Energy sent customers in January an email with ten simple and inexpensive ways to warm up this winter. They included eating ‘hearty bowls of porridge’, sticking to ‘non-alcoholic drinks’ and eating ginger — but not chilli, ‘as it makes you sweat’
According to him, the solution lies in a fund that is taxpayer-backed and allows energy companies to borrow money at very low rates. This will help to pay millions of monthly bills.
He says that the £400 being knocked off all energy bills for all Britons in the six months from October must be paid in full before Christmas.
Fitzpatrick also said that extra charges for pre-payment customers should be scrapped and standing charges abolished.
Ovo, however has faced many controversies in its time as a key player within the energy sector.
Energy regulator Ofgem announced in January 2020 that the firm would pay almost £9million in fines after thousands of customers were overcharged and around half a million received inaccurate statements.
Ovo underestimated consumption and was aware of IT problems that caused billing irregularities but didn’t report them to regulators.
The watchdog stated that the breaches took place while Ovo failed to pay enough attention to ensuring Ovo’s processes and governance could comply with Ofgem rules.
Ovo is back in hot water after two years. In January this year, Ovo recommended that homes save heating money by ‘cuddling,’ ‘cleaning,’ or performing a few star jumps.
Other suggestions included having a ‘cuddle with your pets and loved ones to help stay cosy’, eating ‘hearty bowls of porridge’, sticking to ‘non-alcoholic drinks’ and eating ginger — but not chilli, ‘as it makes you sweat’.
Now, accounts filed at Companies House show Ovo has struggled to make a profit even when energy prices were low and stable, racking up £300m in losses in the past three years.
Ovo is an operator of large size and it has not been in financial difficulties. However, Fitzpatrick’s appeal to the Government shows that all firms are worried about their customers not being able to pay their bills.