9th Aug 2018 09:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - G4S PLC reported Thursday a large drop in interim profit and revenue due to currency movements and business disposals.
The FTSE 250-listed security services company's statutory pretax profit decreased 37% in the six months ended June to GBP139 million from GBP219 million the year before.
Revenue decreased 7.5% to GBP3.67 billion from GBP3.97 billion.
Currency movements contributed a GBP10 million loss to profit and a GBP173 million loss to revenue year-on-year.
Excluding the effects of currency movements, profit fell due to weaker trading in the company's Europe & Middle East Secure Solutions division as well as lower revenue and increased business costs in its Cash Solutions division.
G4S revenue also suffered from business disposals in Hungary, Israel and its Youth Services business in the US.
The FTSE 250-listing posted a slight increase in underlying revenue of 0.2% to GBP3.60 billion from GBP3.59 billion the year before, while underlying adjusted profit before interest, tax and amortisation still decreased, by 3.2% to GBP212 million from GBP219 million.
G4S is proposing an interim dividend of 3.59 pence per share, flat on the year before.
Looking ahead, the company has a positive outlook for the remainder of the year. G4S believes its contract wins and strong retention rate in the first half "provide good revenue momentum".
Chief Executive Officer Ashley Almanza said: "As anticipated, the group delivered a marked improvement in revenue generation in the second quarter, with organic growth of 2.8% resulting in half year organic growth of 0.2% against demanding comparatives.
"Growing technology-enabled services in both our cash and security businesses, a favourable sales mix and planned productivity benefits, underpins the group's positive outlook for the full year."
Shares in G4S were down 6.7% Thursday morning at 263.20 pence each.
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