GardaWorld turns hostile in £3bn battle to secure G4S

A transatlantic war of words has broken out after Canadian security firm Gardaworld formally turned hostile in its £3bn takeover bid for G4S.

The company ratcheted up the pressure on the board of G4S, led by City grandee John Connolly, by lodging a firm offer for the FTSE 250 company.

Stephan Crétier, chairman of GardaWorld, justified not increasing his company’s 190p-a-share offer for G4S by labelling it a “deeply troubled business”.

“G4S needs a committed owner-operator team that understands the sector and has a definitive and comprehensive plan.

“The G4S board has behaved in a cavalier way by rejecting our potential offer out of hand.”

GardaWorld, backed by private equity firm BC Partners and headquartered in Montreal, went public earlier this month after a series of confidential bids were rejected.

G4S urged shareholders not to support the overtures from Canada.

A quarter of investors publicly rejected Gardaworld's bid earlier this month.

Mr Connolly said: “The unsolicited 190p offer launched today by GardaWorld is unchanged from the proposal that has already been carefully considered and unanimously rejected by the G4S board as significantly undervaluing the company and its prospects.”

Mr Crétier further justified not increasing the GardaWorld bid because G4S “remains dogged by scandals, crises and lawsuits”.

His company’s offer factored in concerns about “a legacy of further claims, provisions and contingent liabilities and clouding the company’s forecasts by creating meaningful cash flow uncertainty”.

Mr Connolly said: “Since rejecting GardaWorld’s last proposal, G4S has announced continuing resilience in its trading with underlying earnings ahead of the prior year for the first eight months of 2020.”

G4S shares rose 5.9pc to 200.30p. They have fallen 7pc this year.