I am happy with the way matters are moving here.

I did and made a whole 5 points.

Now just watching.

Panmure Gordon has cut its rating for security solutions group G4S from 'buy' to 'hold' and slashed its target price from 311p to 252p, saying that the shares are 'finely poised' between the bull and bear cases.

"The new management team clearly have a lot of work to do in order to clean up the portfolio, reduce balance sheet gearing and prove to the market that its medium term margin guidance of 7.0% is achievable," the broker said.

StockMarketWire.com
RBC Capital Markets has upgraded its recommendation on G4S (LON:GFS) to "outperform" from "sector perform" after conducting a scenario analysis on potential investments, disposals and a capital raising. The broker concluded that the market's biggest fear appears to be the debt position of the company, but the scenarios suggest improvement potential at a cost which is not prohibitive. The City broker has left its price target unchanged at 260 pence per share. The shares have fallen in value by around 3 per cent in the past month. Separately, Goldman Sachs repeated its "conviction sell" recommendation, cutting its price target to 194 pence per share (from 200 pence), in a note to investors last week.

I think the brokers might review their opinions now that there is yet another scandal breaking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23272708

I saw the news, but obviously too late.

no wonder Buckles took an early bath!

G4S response to the Justice Secretary's statement on the UK Electronic Monitoring contract

G4S notes the Justice Secretary's announcement today and provides the following additional information:

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is an important customer and G4S is committed to addressing and resolving the MoJ's concerns as soon as possible.

G4S has co-operated fully with the PwC audit and is committed to co-operating with all audits of current contracts to the full extent provided under those contracts.

G4S has requested full details of the PwC audit findings and looks forward to receiving these in order to address any findings.

The Justice Secretary has confirmed that, following the PwC audit, he has no evidence of any dishonesty in relation to the EM contracts. G4S is conducting its own review, assisted by external advisers, and is not aware of any indications of dishonesty or misconduct. G4S believes that any evidence or indication of dishonesty should be referred to the relevant authorities including, if appropriate, the SFO.

G4S has not received a claim for a refund. Our own review continues and if we identify any evidence of overbilling, then we will reimburse the MoJ as we would with any customer.

Ashley Almanza, Group CEO, G4S plc said:

"G4S is committed to having close and open relationships with our customers and we strive to work in partnership for the mutual benefit of our organisations. We place the highest premium on customer service and integrity and therefore take very seriously the concerns expressed by the Ministry of Justice. We are determined to deal with these issues in a prompt and appropriate manner."

weasel words they may be joining some of their clients soon, after the Olympics fiasco what next?

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 210.60 - - Retains

Exane BNP Paribas Neutral 210.60 280.00 240.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 210.60 250.00 212.00 Reiterates

StockMarketWire.com
Security group G4S said sales were up 7.2% in the first half-year, with organic growth of 5.4%. The group enjoyed organic growth of 13% in developing markets. G4S took a one-off charge of £180m in the period.

Underlying PBITA was £201 million (2012: £202 million).

Strong and growing global contract pipeline of £4 billion per annum across a diverse range of sectors and regions, supports prospects for sustainable profitable growth.

Cash generated from operations £218 million.

A review of the group's assets and liabilities has resulted in a one-off charge of £180 million.

Net debt position as at 30 June 2013 was £1,950 million. The group is intending to raise funds via a 9.99% placing of new ordinary shares today.

Agreed sale of Canadian Cash solutions business and Colombia Data solutions for proceeds of around £100 million. Sale of US businesses progressing to schedule.

Interim dividend unchanged at 3.42p (DKK 0.2972).

shley Almanza, Group CEO, commented:

"There was strong demand for our services across key markets and industry sectors in the first half of the year which resulted in continued revenue growth. Growth was particularly strong in developing markets where we have excellent market positions. There are significant growth opportunities in our key markets and this is reflected in our growing contract pipeline of around £4 billion per annum.

On a like-for-like basis, half-year profits were in line with the same period in 2012 against a background of challenging trading conditions in Europe and in our cash solutions businesses in the UK and Ireland.

We are divesting a number of non-core businesses, which will improve our strategic focus and realise substantial cash proceeds. We have announced two disposals today with combined cash proceeds of around £100 million and we have a well advanced process to sell two other businesses in the US. We are also considering other disposals and these together with those already announced have the potential to raise up to £250 million.

We need to strengthen our balance sheet to be able to realise the group's opportunity for substantial value creation. Today we have announced our intention to raise funds via a 9.99% placing of new ordinary shares. This, together with our disposals program and a renewed focus on cash flow management will enable us to invest in sustainable, profitable growth and reduce our debt to a level which supports our goal of maintaining a long term net debt to EBITDA ratio of less than 2.5x.

On the operational front, we plan to introduce systems and processes to improve efficiency and risk management and we will be restructuring a number of businesses to ensure that they are more competitive and able to deliver improved margins.

Our unique geographic footprint, strong market positions and the skills and capabilities embodied in our employees, coupled with our diverse and global customer base provide us with a solid foundation from which we can continue to build the business.

Our strong contract pipeline, strengthened balance sheet, focused investment programme and improved operational and financial management all support the delivery of revenue growth, operational efficiencies and improved cash generation. In the near term, 2013 will be a year of consolidation for the group with the actions we are now taking starting to deliver tangible benefits during 2014."

Panmure Gordon has maintained its 'hold' rating and 240p target price for security solutions group G4S after a weaker-than-expected first half, but has praised management's efforts to turn the business around.

The broker said that while this will be a year of consolidation for G4S, it is a strong start by the new management team: "[…] we applaud the quick work undertaken by management to re-structure the group and shore up the balance sheet."

RBC Capital Markets Sector Performer 255.05 256.00 260.00 270.00 Downgrades

StockMarketWire.com
G4S has rejected a non-binding, indicative and conditional offer of £1,550m for its cash solutions business from Charterhouse Capital Partners.

The board consider the group's cash solutions services to be core to G4S's operations and strategic plans.

The board regards the nature and timing of the approach to be highly opportunistic and, following due consideration, with the assistance of financial advisers, the offer has been firmly rejected considering the strategic importance of the cash solutions businesses to G4S and because the board believes the conditional offer fundamentally undervalues the business and its prospects.

The company does not intend to pursue this non-binding, conditional offer and has notified Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP.

SFO Investigation
G4S confirms that it has today received notice that the Director of the Serious Fraud Office has opened an investigation into the "contract for the provision of electronic monitoring services which commenced in April 2005 as amended and extended until the present day".

G4S has confirmed to the SFO that it will co-operate fully with the investigation.

MoJ and Cross Government Contract Review
G4S plc, the global integrated security company, notes the announcements and statements made today by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Cabinet Office.

G4S has worked closely with the MoJ and Cabinet Office on an extensive review of its major contracts since July this year. This review is now complete and, with the exception of two court facilities management (FM) contracts, it has not identified any significant issues. The information available to G4S indicates that any financial exposure on the court FM contracts is not expected to be material to the Group.

G4S also notes the decision by the MoJ to refer the court FM contracts to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to consider whether it should investigate matters related to these contracts. The MoJ has advised G4S that the Ministry does not have any evidence of dishonesty in relation to these contracts. Furthermore, G4S has no evidence of such conduct.

The cross Government review found no evidence of deliberate acts or omissions by G4S in relation to charging and billing arrangements on its major contracts.

G4S places the highest premium on adherence to its company values, including customer service and integrity. We take the MoJ's concerns very seriously and the company has recently strengthened the service management team on the court FM contracts and continues to work closely with the MoJ to ensure that G4S delivers a facilities management service to the courts that reflects the high standards of performance which G4S expects to provide to all customers.

G4S continues to engage constructively with Her Majesty's Government regarding the Electronic Monitoring contracts.

RBC Capital has added G4S (LON:GFS) to its list of stocks to avoid and moved its recommendation to "underperform" (from 'sector perform') viewing the shares as being more than fully valued. Even assuming its best case scenario plays out perfectly over the coming four years, the broker reckons the shares would still only be worth around £3 each. G4S has been heavily re-rated with the market affording vastly higher valuations to a new management team, analysts said in a note to investors. We struggle with these valuations and move to Underperform.
The broker has cut its price target to 235 pence a share (from 255 pence) to reflect downgrades to earnings forecasts.

Analysts at Panmure Gordon have recommended investors ‘sell’ shares of security solutions firm G4S after the company’s annual results missed forecasts. The broker maintained its 200p target price for the stock, which implies 18% downside from current levels.

“We anticipate further pressure on consensus estimates on the back of these results and maintain our cautious stance on the shares for now.”

Citigroup Neutral 232.50 232.50 270.00 250.00 Retains

Goldman Sachs Conviction Sell 232.50 232.50 193.00 175.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 232.50 232.50 221.00 221.00 Reiterates

StockMarketWire.com
Security group G4S said today that Q1 revenues, compared to the same three month period last year grew by 4.8%, with organic growth of 5.0%.

Underlying profit before interest, tax and amortisation (PBITA) and earnings were slightly higher than the same period of 2013.

Emerging markets organic revenue growth was 16% with double-digit growth across all emerging markets regions. Developed markets' revenue was flat compared with 2013.

The group had a positive start to the year winning new business with annual revenues of over £440 million. Major contract wins include retail and services customers in the US, retail customers in Brazil, port security consultancy in the Middle East, cash solutions contracts in the Netherlands and significant new business with the UK Government.

In April, the UK Government gave a positive assessment of the group's Corporate Renewal Plan in the UK which forms part of the group's wider corporate transformation programme

The group continues to have a strong financial position, with S&P recently confirming its investment grade credit rating at BBB- (Stable).

Ashley Almanza, CEO said
"Our trading performance is in line with our plans, reflecting strong growth in emerging markets and satisfactory performance in developed markets. We continue to implement a group-wide transformation programme which is focused on embedding our group values, restructuring key businesses and investing in organic growth, technology, innovation and cost leadership and which supports our long term objectives of delivering sustainable growth in earnings, cash flow and dividend."