G4S Reports First Half Profits

Strong demand in the US, Canada and emerging economies have helped the firm.

However, with recent high profile scandals affecting G4S, the firm’s boss Ashley Almanza admits the firm still has a lot of work ahead.

At the London 2012 Olympics the firm came under heavy fire after its recruitment and training of security staff were found to be lacking. This led to the Army having to be drafted in at most of the Games venues’.

The firm is also subject to a present investigation being conducted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

G4S was banned from being awarded any more government contracts here in the UK after the firm was found to be charging inflated prices for electronic tags for prisoners.

The SFO is investigating G4S and Serco over the relevant contracts.

That ban has now been lifted, after the security firm repaid the UK Government £109m to cover the losses.

It has also said it is undertaking a programme to strengthen its governance processes and overall performance in light of recent troubles.

The firm made the tagging payment in April and has subsequently been awarded public and private contracts amounting to £1.2bn for the year.

Among the contracts awarded in the UK is the lucrative Department for Work & Pensions contract managing long-term unemployed community work placements.

Revenue for G4S had grown by 4.1% in Q1 and Q2, amounting to £3.37bn, with growth in the North American market of 4.2%. It’s revenue in Latin America grew by 12.8%

At the time of writing, early trading on Wednesday had seen shares in G4S (GFS) rise by 1.81%.