Octopus Energy completed its acquisition of Bulb's customers, business assets and liabilities, including customer credit balances, on 20 December 2022, according to evidence given to the Public Accounts Committee by Octopus co-founder and chief financial officer Stuart Jackson. The transaction closed slightly after the start of the price cap observation window1.
The sale followed a delay. Octopus had been identified as the acquirer in October 2022, after a process that had originally been expected to conclude earlier in the summer1. Bulb collapsed in the summer of 2021 and was placed into the special administration regime, the first use of that vehicle1. In June 2022 the National Audit Office reported that £0.9 billion had been spent by Government on running Bulb through the special administration regime in 2021-20221.
Costs of the administration itself were also set out. The costs at the time of the NAO report for the special administrators, for the special administrators' legal advisers and for Lazard totalled £49.9 million at the end of January1.
"We completed the transaction on 20 December, which was slightly after the start of that observation window"
The committee also heard about the wider price picture. Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley told the committee that the new energy price cap was understood to be £2,074 for an average annual bill, down from a cost to an average household of about £3,300, with the price guarantee fixing bills at £2,5001. He said bills remained substantially higher than the roughly £1,100 to £1,200 seen before the gas crisis1.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Government spend on running Bulb through special administration, 2021-2022 | £0.9 billion |
| Special administrators, their legal advisers and Lazard, at end of January | £49.9 million |
| New energy price cap, average annual bill | £2,074 |
| Price guarantee level at the time of the evidence | £2,500 |
Why it matters for households
For Bulb customers, the practical effect of the transaction was a change of supplier rather than a loss of supply, with customer credit balances included in the assets and liabilities acquired1. Households whose supplier stops trading are normally moved to a new supplier under the supplier of last resort arrangements, and credit balances are a common concern in those cases; the committee evidence records that Bulb's credit balances formed part of this sale1. The wider context is a market in which Ofgem has moved to regular stress testing of every retail company, with capital and financial resilience requirements still being developed and implemented1. For a household, the resilience of the supplier behind the account is what determines whether a collapse means disruption, and the cost of failures is ultimately borne publicly, as the £0.9 billion figure for running Bulb shows1.
What happens next
The committee heard that the energy bills discount scheme was in place for the year, and that the energy price guarantee remains as a backstop if prices spike upwards again, until the end of March 20241. On repayment, the evidence stated that, looking at the markets to date, repayment should be made by September 20241. The committee also referred to a judgment published at the end of March1.
Sources1 cited
- [](https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13238/html/), committees.parliament.uk