Global security firm G4S gets grip on overhaul, shares soar

Britain's G4S posted strong results on Wednesday, sending its shares soaring on signs the world's largest security group had bounded back after previous scandals helped by more demand for its services and a shift in focus away from the UK.

G4S, which runs services ranging from manned security in prisons to cash transportation, is selling weaker units under a restructuring programme after a string of high-profile contract problems in Britain, which now accounts for one fifth of its revenues.

Core profit of 199 million pounds ($259.68 million) was helped by booming revenues from emerging markets, accounting for increasingly more revenue than the UK and Ireland where the company has scaled back after a string of problems.

"Our strategy and our plans are now delivering tangible results," Chief Executive Ashley Almanza said, adding that the company was concentrating on whittling down debt and delivering its overhaul.

Analysts had predicted the group could be vulnerable to the backlog in political decision-making in Britain after its vote to leave the European Union, a more sluggish domestic economy and a fall in the value of the pound making its debt in foreign currencies more expensive to service.

It was able to whittle down debt to 3.2 times core earnings from 3.3 times at the end of 2015 thanks to strong cash flow, offsetting the impact of weaker sterling on euro and dollar-denominated debt.

Shares in G4S jumped on relief that the dividend - seen as vulnerable by some analysts - was maintained at 3.59 pence per share and that the company would not seek to raise more funds, as some analysts had expected.

At 0752 GMT they were up nearly 14 percent and on track for their best day in 15 years at 222.43 pence.

Demand for security services has been increasing, even before Islamist attacks in France and Germany this summer, which had little direct impact, CEO Almanza told Reuters.

"We have seen increased demand for security technology and consulting, but frankly we saw that before recent events in France and that has been a steady trend for the last three years."

The firm appears to have put behind it a series of scandals, including news in June that a gunman who killed 49 people in a Florida nightclub was an employee who had not been efficiently vetted.

G4S gained notoriety at home in Britain after failing to provide enough guards for the London Olympics in 2012. It was later investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for overcharging the government to provide electronic tags for offenders, some of whom turned out to have been in jail or dead.

On Wednesday it increased a charge on loss-making British government contracts to manage asylum-seeking immigration.

Almanza said the company was getting steady interest in the business units it is selling, the four largest of which are worth around 300 million pounds according to analysts.

Group revenues rose 5.1 percent.

Results were in line with expectations, with core earnings of 199 million pounds landing within a forecast range of 185 million to 205 million pounds.