UK energy and services group Centrica has agreed to buy the New York-based electricity and natural gas supplier NewPower in an �87m ($130m) deal.

It is the third acquisition by Centrica in as many months and brings the group closer to its goal of having 10 million customers in North America by 2003.

NewPower's 650,000 customers lift Centrica's customer base to 4.3 million in Canada and the US.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to combine our sales and marketing skills with the expertise that NewPower brings," said Centrica chief executive Roy Gardner.

The deal will help it "achieve critical mass in our target markets in the US", he said.

Gap in the market

Centrica, which is already the UK's largest supplier of gas, is aiming high.

In the UK, it trades under the name of the former state-owned 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 trader Enron.

It also recently bought the Canadian heating firm Enbridge.

And with the NewPower deal, it is becoming apparent that the group is quickly filling much of the void left by the collapse of Enron.

Foothold

The takeover of NewPower gives 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 said last Friday that it wants to raise �420m by selling new shares.

Ahead of the NewPower deal, Centrica's most recent acquisitions had helped boost its sales to �12.6bn, up from �9.9bn in 2000.

Enron exposure

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 aims 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.