I am happy with the way matters are moving here.

Graham Ruddick, 18:16, Tuesday 1 November 2011

Nick Buckles knew his "market-changing" 5.2bn takeover of ISS was in trouble on the same day the deal was announced.

The G4S chief executive revealed the proposed acquisition on the morning of Monday, October 17. Buckles thought he had the backing of his leading shareholders after "positive" feedback from pre-marketing. Several institutions had even agreed to sub-underwrite the 2bn rights issue that would finance the deal, he was told.

However, when G4S (Other OTC: GFSZF.PK - news) shares slumped by 22pc it was clear all was not well. Advisers to the company claimed it was simply a technical repricing to reflect the deeply discounted rights issue. In reality, the City was in shock. "It became an uphill struggle from there," Buckles said on Tuesday.

For many investors, the security group had been a safe haven stock that had outperformed the market even during the recession. However, spending 5.2bn on a cleaning and catering group with 2bn of new shareholder money and 3.7bn of debt would create a radically different company.

Not only would G4S no longer be focused on security, but it would become one of the most highly leveraged companies in the FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) . That was not the G4S (Dusseldorf: GHN.DU - news) that investors bought into.

During pre-marketing on the previous Thursday and Friday, Buckles tried to convince his 12 largest investors that G4S needed to do the deal because its customers increasingly wanted a wider range of services from its contractors.

However, these "briefings" lasted less than an hour and some were held over the phone. The shareholders say they were simply given a preview of an announcement that was ready to be made, and did not have enough time to digest the acquisition. Although many would need time to establish their opposition to the deal, they were already frustrated, surprised and uncomfortable at the way it had been presented.

One top 20 shareholder said: "It's like buying a flat for your girlfriend and then asking whether she likes it. Even though she will be paying for it."

Another said: "We are the owners of the business, not the investment banks. They trusted the investment bankers more than the shareholders and that is stupid."

The drop in the share price revealed the concerns but also spooked the institutions who had been willing to support it. Opposition became widespread. As well as the surprise strategic shift amid economic uncertainty, investors had doubts about the price being paid to the private equity owners of ISS and whether G4S could integrate a business that would have 1.2m employees around the world.

Privately and publicly, Kames Capital is the only leading shareholder to have confirmed it would have supported the deal. By the time G4S cancelled the shareholder vote on the deal on Tuesday, it was facing a landslide defeat.

"We clearly regret that we misread the market's appetite for deals of this scale," Buckles sad.

A top five City shareholder in G4S says Buckles should have approached it earlier about the deal and it would have agreed to not trade shares in the company. The investor would have urged Buckles to "revisit" the proposals before they were even made public, potentially saving G4S the embarrassment of the deal unravelling in front of the City. "It is not impossible that they could buy bits of ISS. Some bits of the business are very good. But the size and totality of it [the deal] was the problem," they added.

Buckles claims he was advised that approaching the shareholders just days before the announcement was "best practice". Meanwhile, the advisers to G4S Deutsche Bank, Greenhill (Xetra: A0B9GF - news) and RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) are frustrated that institutions backtracked from their positive feedback during pre-marketing. A G4S source claims "several institutions" handed over letters saying they would sub-underwrite the rights issue. "There is something to learn for everyone from this," the source said.

Those lessons add to the ones garnered from the failed Prudential (LSE: PRU.L - news) and AIA deal last year. G4S investors have again demonstrated that management and shareholders must engage properly, particularly if the investors are being asked to stump up fresh cash.

However, it is doubtful that Buckles could ever have persuaded shareholders against their view that the ISS deal was an unproven strategic shift that asked too much of them. His strong track record at G4S was no match for the scepticism of shareholders, which was exacerbated by volatile global stock markets. The one consolation for Buckles is that his prior track record is likely to ensure he keeps his job.

ahhhh - buckles made a bit of a hash of it all!! apparently today he said he considered his job was safe - the other funny thing in this debacle was that iss actually ended up voting against iss i.e. itself LOL! still opportunity to make some good splosh greatly received thanks bucky - and this news obviously will not do gfs any harm

G4S ticked up 3.6 to 266.4p as Credit Suiss upgraded the stock to "outperform" with a 310p price target. "We expect organic growth will accelerate to 9pc in 2012," said Credit Suisse.

..London 2012 Olympics: G4S interviewing 84,000 candidates

By Graham Ruddick | Telegraph – 2 hours 2 minutes ago


......
G4S (Other OTC: GFSZF.PK - news) says it is interviewing 84,000 candidates for its Olympic security contract.

The FTSE 100 security group is looking to hire around 10,000 temporary workers, with 2,500 already in place, to provide security at the Olympic Park in London during the Games this week.

The contract is worth around £200m to G4S, which will need to vet and train all the workers before London 2012.

Nick Buckles, chief executive, said: "This is a very large undertaking. It's a tough challenge but we have a strong management team in place."

The Olympic contract will boost organic revenue growth for G4S by 2pc to 3pc this year. In a trading update yesterday, Mr Buckles said G4S had grown revenues by 6.7pc in the first quarter of 2012 aided by the Olympics and 11pc growth in developing markets.

However, despite the revenue growth, profits for G4S will only be at "similar levels" to 2011. This is because margins have shrank due to spending cuts in the US and as G4S has won new UK contracts, such as providing security for Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) branches, with higher initial costs.

Mr Buckles said he was "pleased" with the company's increase in revenues and said margins should improve in the second half of the year.

He added: "Based on recent contract awards, outsourcing trends and the group's bid pipeline, the organic growth rate is expected to continue to improve during 2012."

Shares in G4S rose 9.2 to 276p.

..

A bit of a no brainer if you were quick this morning.

260 would be nice!

And there it is! :-)

Statement regarding the Olympic Games Security Contract

I might let this run a bit longer.

G4S Olympics staff failed to arrive for security work

Only 17 of an expected 56 G4S staff turned up for work at an Olympic team hotel in Salford, the chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Authority has said.

As a result, the force has pulled in front-line officers to provide security, Paul Murphy revealed.

Home Secretary Theresa May will answer questions about G4S problems later.

Parliament Live

Little hope if Connelly new chairman does not stand by Buttons.
After all Connelly's old firm Deloittes did a review of the contract and gave advice. One assumes Connelly knew this before taking up appointment.

Buttons needs support at a time like this and Connelly should offer positive help and talk it up. Perhaps Agius could help here! If Buttons has to go then Connelly must too.

Stopped out @245 +36 - a bit surprised this hasn't fallen further this morning.

Update on Olympic Games Security Contract


G4S notes the announcement today that Ministers have decided to mobilise the
additional 1,200 troops which had previously been put on standby in order to
supplement the security workforce deployment for the Olympic Games. The
security of the Games is the primary focus and therefore we understand the
decision by Ministers to activate the additional contingency resource as a
further precaution at this stage of the process.

We have made very good progress in the last few days and, in line with the
revised deployment plan submitted to LOCOG, currently have around 5,800 security
personnel deployed at Olympic venues. Significant numbers of candidates are now
reaching the final stages of the training and accreditation process each day and
we are working hard to ensure that we deliver on the commitments we made to
LOCOG last week.

We are grateful to the military for their support in securing the Olympic and
Paralympic Games and will continue to work with them and LOCOG to ensure that
the Games are safe and secure.

As we have announced previously, G4S has undertaken to cover the additional
costs relating to the military deployment and believes that, including the
deployment of the additional 1,200 troops, the overall losses to be incurred on
the contract will remain within the previously stated estimate of GBP35m - GBP50m.

I see these are creeping up again - any views on whether when the dust of the Olympic "euphoria" is over, these will tank again?

INVESTMENT EXTRA: Can G4S get back into the game after Olympic security fiasco?


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2183347/INVESTMENT-EXTRA-Can-G4S-game-Olympic-security-fiasco.html

Thinking the same skinny. Trouble is the brand name has been damaged. For me there are better companies about.Will pass on this one. Could take a while to recover.

UK's G4S makes military donation after Games failure

LONDON | Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:31am BST

(Reuters) - Security firm G4S will donate 2.5 million pounds ($3.9 million) to British military sports and welfare organisations to thank troops who stepped in to secure Olympic venues after it failed to provide enough guards, the government said on Monday.

Media coverage ahead of the London 2012 Games was dominated by G4S's admission it could not supply all of a promised 10,400 guards for the two-week sporting festival, which closed on Sunday.

An additional 4,700 military personnel were mobilised to join 13,500 troops already earmarked for venue security after G4S's last-minute admission it had problems recruiting sufficient staff.

Half Yearly Report

Excluding the Olympic Games contract, sales up 5.8% and improved organic growth of 5.1%. Adjusted EPS maintained at 9.8p

Organic growth of 10% in developing markets with revenue of £1,191m (31% of group total and targeting 50% by 2019)

Group margin excluding exceptional items is lower at 6.0% (6.2% excluding the Olympics Games revenue) due to the challenging US government market and UK contract phasing

On track to achieve annual cash conversion target of 85%

Olympic and Paralympic Games contract loss of £50m provided for as an exceptional item in H1

Contract review underway and expected to be completed during second half of September

Continued focus on business improvement


Service excellence centres established for all core services: manned security, cash solutions and care & justice services - part of a two year programme to support gross margins and profit improvement initiatives

Restructuring leading to a headcount reduction of 1,100 positions and £30m annualised savings, of which related costs of £24m have been taken as an exceptional item in H1, a large proportion of which relate to Continental Europe. Up to £10m further costs are expected in H2

Security remains core to global strategy and continues to provide growth opportunities

Strong global contract pipeline of £3.8bn per annum across a diverse range of sectors including the strongest visible pipeline in US commercial sector on record

Down trend back in place.

MPs call on G4S to forego £57m fee after Olympics failure

G4S should forego its £57m management fee after failing to supply the required number of Olympics security staff, a committee of MPs has said.

It should also compensate people who were accredited for Olympics work with the firm but not given any shifts, the Home Affairs Committee argued in a report on Olympics security.

The firm's Olympics contract was worth £237m, including the management fee.

Company boss Nick Buckles has said he expects G4S to be paid in full.

Blah blah :- REVIEW OF LONDON OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES SECURITY CONTRACT

The key points can be summarised as follows:

The Olympic contract was unique in terms of scale and complexity, but notwithstanding this, the Company was capable of fulfilling the contract; the issue was in its delivery.

Although the Company recognised the unique and complex nature of the Olympic contract from an early stage, this was not properly reflected in its handling of the contract. The Company has management and other structures and processes that have proved highly effective in delivering the Company's regular business over many years but it did not recognise these structures and processes needed augmenting for the Olympic contract.

The monitoring and tracking of the security workforce, management information and the project management framework and practices were ineffective to address the scale, complexities and dependencies of the Olympic contract. Together this caused the failure of the Company to deliver the contract requirements in full and resulted in the identification of the key problems at a very late stage.

The successful execution of the Home Office/LOCOG contingency plan including deployment of additional military and police together with a substantial contribution from the thousands of G4S employees who worked alongside them, led to a safe and secure games with continuously positive ratings on venue security from games visitors.

The Board confirms that it is in the best interests of the Company and of all its stakeholders that Nick Buckles should remain Group CEO. Whilst the CEO has ultimate responsibility for the Company's performance, the Review did not identify significant shortcomings in his performance or serious failings attributable to him in connection with the Olympic contract.

The Board has accepted the resignations of David Taylor-Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Regional CEO - UK and Africa and of Ian Horseman Sewell, Managing Director, G4S Global Events.

Richard Morris, currently the Group Managing Director of G4S Care & Justice Services in the UK, has been appointed as the CEO, UK Region. Kim Challis, who currently runs a portfolio of UK commercial and Government businesses, will take on direct line management responsibility for all Government businesses in the UK as CEO, G4S Government and Outsourcing Solutions - a new role created to enhance our focus on this critically important area of our business.

The Group Executive will also be strengthened with the appointment of a Group Chief Operating Officer, who will work closely with the CEO, with responsibilities to include a specific focus on operational procedures, risk management and quality customer service and delivery. The Group COO role will be an external appointment.
The contract failings are largely specific to the Olympic contract. However, G4S will take a number of further actions, learning lessons from this contract, to ensure that best practices are applied across the entire business. Actions will include: more rigorous risk assessment for new contracts and improved contract take-on processes and project management. Board oversight will be enhanced including review and approval of contracts where annual revenues exceed £50m.

The Board will be strengthened by the addition of at least two new non-executive directors. The recruitment process is underway.

John Connolly, who joined G4S as Chairman on June 8, said:
"G4S has accepted responsibility for its failure to deliver fully on the Olympic contract.

We apologise for this and we thank the military and the police for the vital roles they played in ensuring the delivery of a safe and secure Games.

Our Review of the company's performance on this contract has been extremely thorough and, whilst the failures are largely specific to the very special nature of this contract, we will learn from mistakes made. We are taking actions in relation to both the management and governance of G4S to ensure we continue to deliver the highest standards of customer service and contract delivery across the Group."