12th Aug 2015 06:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 100-listed outsourcing firm G4S PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit fell in the first six months of 2015 on the back of restructuring and impairment charges, but its revenue edged higher despite a decline in the UK and Ireland.
The group said its pretax profit fell to GBP70 million in the first six months of the year, down from GBP80 million a year earlier as a rise in revenue was offset by restructuring charges and goodwill impairments it booked in the half.
Revenue was up slightly to GBP3.41 billion from GBP3.38 billion as the group won GBP1.4 billion in new contracts in the first half, while keeping its contract retention rate at around 90%. It sales pipeline at the end of the half was GBP6 billion. The group said it saw robust demand for its services in the North American, Latin American, Asian and Middle East markets in the half, while Europe returned to growth but UK and Ireland revenue declined.
G4S said it would pay an interim dividend of 3.59 pence per share, up 5% year-on-year.
"We continue to make good progress with our strategic plans, investing in growth and productivity programmes which underpinned strong growth in our pipeline and a 10.5% increase in underlying earnings. We won new contracts with a total value of GBP1.4 billion and sales, new contract mobilisation and on-going productivity programmes provided increasingly good momentum through the first half. This is expected to deliver further improvements in the group's performance in the second half," said Chief Executive Ashley Almanza.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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