I am happy with the way matters are moving here.

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."

G4S 'warned' over killer security guard Danny Fitzsimons

guard in Iraq just days before he murdered two colleagues, a BBC investigation has found.

Private security guard Paul McGuigan, from the Scottish Borders, was shot dead by Danny Fitzsimons in 2009 in Baghdad while on a protection contract.

Another man, Australian Darren Hoare, was also killed.

Tuesday November 6
• G4S will provide a trading update on the third quarter. It will be the company’s first opportunity to update the market on how the company is faring following the Olympics security fiasco which ultimately cost two of G4S’s senior management their jobs.

Interim Management Statement

Overview of the financial performance for the nine months to 30 September 2012
In the first nine months of 2012, overall revenues compared to the same period last year, excluding the London 2012 contract, grew by 6.3% at constant exchange rates and by 4.1% at actual exchange rates. Including the London 2012 contract, revenues grew by 9.2% at constant rates and by 6.9% at actual exchange rates. As expected, the group operating margin was lower compared to the same period in 2011.

G4S loses Wolds prison contract

Private security firm G4S has lost its contract to run Wolds prison in East Yorkshire and failed to win a number of other private jail contracts.

A report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in August said HMP Wolds had "clear weaknesses", with poor behaviour and high levels of drug use among inmates.

G4S said it was "disappointed".

Statement re London 2012 Games Security Contract

G4S, the international secure outsourcing group, today announces that it has agreed a financial settlement with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games ("LOCOG") in respect of the provision of the security workforce for the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games ("the Games").

The terms of the settlement mean that G4S will incur an overall loss on the contract of approximately £70 million. The group has also incurred additional costs of approximately £11 million, relating to charitable donations and external fees and a further £7 million relating to the cost of sponsorship and marketing. All of these costs will be taken in the 2012 accounts as an exceptional charge (£50 million having been provided for at the half year based on the previous contract loss estimate). The main difference between the previous estimate and the final settlement is an agreement to waive a larger proportion of the project management charge.

StockMarketWire.com
G4S, the international security solutions group, has decided to divest its US Government solutions business.

G4S Government Solutions provides security, fire protection, facilities management, training and mine clearance services to US Government organisations including the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security and Defence in addition to international organisations such as NATO and the United Nations, both within the United States and overseas.

It operates sensitive Government contracts requiring high level security clearances and is therefore managed under a proxy board structure in order to comply with US national security regulations. The company believes that an alternative parent would be able to create or add more value to the business than G4S because as a non-US parent, with restricted access to important commercial data, its ability to manage the business and share best practice is severely limited.

In 2012, G4S Government Solutions had annual revenues of around £400m.

The company will retain its highly-regarded US commercial security business which provides a broad range of security services and technology to commercial companies and Government departments at a Federal, State and local level, where high level security clearances are not required. The revenues of this business, combined with G4S' other ongoing US operations totalled around £1.2bn billion in 2012.

Houlihan Lokey has been appointed to manage the divestment process and it is expected that the transaction will be completed within the next six months, subject to all necessary approvals.

StockMarketWire.com
Security firm G4S said turnover increased by 5.5% to £7.297bn in the year to end-December, 8.1% at constant currency. Organic turnover growth was 6.9%.

PBITA was £516m up 6.0% at constant exchange rates excluding the Olympic Games contract and up 2.8% in total at actual rates. The PBITA margin was 7.1%.

Operating cash flow, excluding the Olympics contract, was £492 million in the period, representing 95% of PBITA. This exceeded the target of 85% through continual analysis of all aspects of the operating cash cycle to improve cash collections. Net cash invested in current year acquistions was £93 million. Net debt at the end of the period was £1,802 million (December 2012: £1,616 million) which was impacted by an Olympic Games related receivable of £75 million which was received in February 2013.

The board recommends a final dividend of 5.54p per share. This represents an increase of 8% on the final dividend for 2011. The interim dividend was 3.42p per share and the total dividend, if approved, will be 8.96p per share, representing an increase of 5% on the total dividend for 2011.

The group expects to continue to increase dividends broadly in line with normalised adjusted earnings.

Nick Buckles, CEO, commented: 'Our 2012 financial results reflect the significant exceptional costs associated with the Olympic contract and our overhead reduction programme together with the large impairment charge related to the discontinued US Government Solutions business.

'Despite these issues, the underlying business has performed well in 2012 with an acceleration in organic turnover growth to 7% and with margins holding at over 7%. The acceleration in organic growth was due largely to a number of new North American commercial and UK government contracts and continued strong growth in developing markets and was achieved despite continued economic challenges in Europe.

'Our developing markets business now accounts for a third of group revenues and continues to grow strongly and our recent acquisitions in Brazil, Vanguarda and Interativa, are performing well.

'The breadth of our portfolio in over 125 countries continues to present many new growth opportunities and we continue to see good opportunities for outsourcing in key sectors such as government, financial institutions, aviation, oil and gas, mining and ports. Our market leading businesses, broad customer base and £3.5bn per annum contract pipeline give us confidence in the outlook for the group.'

G4S's full-year results failed to please the market on Wednesday as headlines focused on the impact of one-offs, such as its failing at the London Olympics, but Panmure Gordon has reiterated its 'buy' rating and 320p target price for the security firm, saying that its underlying performance was strong.

"Overall while the shares have had a good run of late, we are likely to maintain a positive stance on the basis that the valuation remains undemanding particularly given the re-rating seen elsewhere in the outsourcing sector," the broker said.

StockMarketWire.com
Numis has moderated its recommendation on G4S (LON:GFS) to "add" from "buy" following the recent strong run on the share price. Shares in the company have increased in value by around 5 per cent in the past month and by nearly 20 per cent over the past three months. The City broker has increased its price target on the security firm to 340 pence per share (previously 315 pence). Separately, JP Morgan Cazenove reaffirmed its "overweight" rating with an unchanged price target of 345 pence per share. Broker Forecasts consensus data shows that three quarters of brokers have a "buy" (or equivalent) rating on the stock with only 10 per cent rating the shares as a "sell"

StockMarketWire.com
Anglo-Danish security group G4S said today that in the quarter to end-March, overall revenues compared to the same period last year, grew by 7.5% at constant exchange rates and by 7.7% at actual exchange rates.

Group operating margin was around 0.6% lower compared to the same period in 2012.

Overall organic growth was encouraging at 6%, with 12% in developing markets and 4% in developed markets

⬢In secure solutions, organic growth was 6%, helped by a continued strong performance in developing markets and UK government

⬢In cash solutions, organic growth was 3% overall. Developed markets declined 1% and developing markets grew 14%.

Overall, the group margin was down around 0.6% due principally to continued challenging economic and trading conditions in Continental Europe, ongoing pricing pressure in the UK and Ireland cash solutions businesses, the mix effect of new contracts starting up in UK Government and the impact of a £6m charge in the African region relating mainly to the write-off of receivables. The proposed closure of 30 prisons and other cost reductions by the Netherlands Ministry of Justice will have a significant negative impact on the group's Dutch business which provides staff to the prisons. For all of these reasons, and despite ongoing business improvement plans, the first quarter margin trends are expected to continue for the full year.

During the first three months of the year, the group invested £5m in capability-building acquisitions such as the Deposita cash solutions business in South Africa. The process for the sale of the US Government Solutions business is underway and the group now intends to include its regulated secure solutions business, which provides services to regulated markets such as nuclear power, in the sale of the US Government Solutions business. RSS had revenues of around £100m and profits of around £6m in 2012.

The group had committed credit facilities of £1,100m, of which £760m was unutilised at 31 March.

The business has continued to achieve good underlying organic growth despite continuing challenging macro-economic conditions in Europe.

The North American commercial businesses had an exceptionally strong performance in 2012 and so, as expected, growth in the first quarter of 2013 was slightly lower. The UK government business continued to grow strongly, helped by contracts started in 2012.

The group's developing markets businesses, which account for more than a third of group profits, continue to achieve strong results and their organic growth rates are expected to continue for 2013.

The macro-economic environment has affected developed markets margins and, despite active business improvement plans which are being implemented, group margins are expected to continue to be impacted adversely in the short term.

Exane BNP Paribas Neutral 260.00 260.00 330.00 280.00 Downgrades

Citigroup Neutral 0.00 260.00 325.00 270.00 Retains

Goldman Sachs Conviction Sell 261.90 260.00 242.00 210.00 Reiterates

Canaccord Genuity Buy 261.70 260.00 325.00 300.00 Retains

Lots of choice there! In the short term I would favour somewhere around 240p before I considered buying in.

Yes - there isn't anything endearing atm.