Unlucky Lucan…the 8th Earl George Bingham’s energy company racked up a £112m loss last year
Lord Lucan’s British energy company racked up a £112million loss last year.
Angus Energy – run by George Bingham, the 8th Earl of Lucan, whose gambler father John, known as ‘Lucky’, disappeared in the 1970s under suspicion of murder – operates Saltfleetby gas field in Lincolnshire.
Losses at the AIM-listed group spiralled in the year to September 2022, according to its annual report, though this was virtually all due to an energy hedging contract.
Loss: George Bingham, the 8th Earl of Lucan, with his wife Anne-Sofie (above left); Mystery surrounds the 7th Earl, ‘Lucky’ Lucan
Angus Energy struck a deal to sell half the gas produced at Saltfleetby at a set price in spring 2021, before a rally began that summer which was turbocharged further by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This means that the business is in the red on paper but has not actually lost cash. ‘Nobody saw gas going up that much,’ Lucan told The Mail on Sunday. ‘It was clearly not ideal timing, but the loss doesn’t reflect any value lost to shareholders.’
Saltfleetby field began producing gas last September. Only half of the price is hedged, so Angus can sell the rest at current market prices. It is likely to post a profit in its next results.
Police launched an unsuccessful hunt for the 7th Earl of Lucan in 1974 after a night-time attack in the family’s Belgravia home left the children’s nanny Sandra Rivett dead and his estranged wife Veronica injured.
