UK energy and services group Centrica says it wants to take over the US electricity and natural gas supplier NewPower.

Centrica's position was boosted by strong profit growth, which was partly the result of the firm's acquisition spree in recent years.

The pre-tax profit for the past year was �636m, up from �498m in 2000.

Centrica is the UK's largest supplier of gas, trading under the name of the former monopoly British Gas. It also owns the AA roadside rescue service, runs financial services under the Goldfish brand, and owns the One.Tel telecoms service.

Late last year, Centrica bought Enron Direct, the European retail arm of failed US energy giant Enron.

Enron's pain, Centrica's pain and gain

A takeover of NewPower would give Centrica a foothold in New Jersey, Georgia, and Pennsylvania on the east coast of the US.

Enron, which is currently under bankruptcy protection, holds a 43% stake in NewPower.

To pay for this and other acquisitions, Centrica wants to raise �420m with investors through a share issue.

The recent acquisitions have helped boost Centrica's sales to �12.6bn, up from �9.9bn in 2000.

Enron's failure may have helped Centrica to snap up some cheap assets, but it also forced Centrica to write off �37m.

Another �35m one-off costs were put down to integrating the roadside recovery business of the AA and the purchase of the UK subsidiary of One.Tel - a struggling Australian telecoms company.

Centrica's operating profit before these exceptional costs - including joint ventures and associates - was �679m, up from �526m.

Goldfish banking

As Centrica's drive to transform itself from a gas supplier to an all-encompassing consumer services company continues, the firm is in the process to boost its financial services arm as well.

Building on its successful Goldfish credit card brand, Centrica recently received a license to launch a Goldfish Bank.

The online bank will be a joint venture with High Street bank Lloyds TSB. Its launch was delayed for months, while Centrica tried to resolve a dispute over access to Goldfish customer data.

Goldfish had been launched as a joint venture with credit card specialist HFC. When Centrica decided to change partners in a bid to take the venture forward, a lengthy battle ensued, that was only resolved in August 2000 just before it went to the courts.