Profits grow for security giant G4S
Global security giant G4S has reported rising half-year sales and profits as the firm's turnaround under chief executive Ashley Almanza continues to pick up pace.
The group reported a 16.7 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £237 million in the six months to June 30, while revenue rose 12.5 per cent to £3.97 billion.
Mr Almanza has been overseeing an overhaul following a series of historic blunders, including a prisoner-tagging scandal and G4S's failure to supply adequate security for the London Olympics in 2012.
He said: "We continued to make substantial progress with G4S's transformation and this provides increased confidence in the group's prospects.
"The scale and quality of our pipeline is materially improved and this, together with our ongoing investment in sales operations and new products and services, provides stronger support for our organic growth plans.
"During the second half of 2017, our growth programme will focus on consolidating contract wins made over the past year and on converting attractive opportunities in our pipeline."
In the UK and Ireland, revenue grew 1.9 pe cent as G4S was boosted by new electronic monitoring, facilities management and integrated security contracts.
The company, which runs Oakwood Prison at Featherstone, near Wolverhampton, and HM Prison Birmingham at Winson Green, added that its productivity programme will allow it to deliver efficiencies of £90 million to £100 million by 2020.
G4S has been selling off under-performing assets and has won a number of new contracts on its way to recovery.
The group has offloaded more than 20 businesses since 2013, with dozens more earmarked for sale or closure.
Under Mr Almanza, the firm's share price has bounced back and G4S was promoted to the FTSE 100 earlier this year as a result.
