£231m wiped off G4S as it warns of slower growth MARKET REPORT
NERVOUS traders wiped £231.2m off the value of G4S yesterday after the security company warned of sluggish demand in India and the Middle East.
The firm said it expects revenues to grow between 3pc and 4pc this year, down from a previous forecast of up to 6pc.
Chief executive Ashley Almanza said turnover was up 4.4pc in the first nine months of 2017 when compared to a year earlier.
He added the company had seen ‘all regions growing apart from the Middle East and India.
The announcement spooked markets, with G4S shares dropping 4.7pc, or 13.1p, to 266.5p.
Bosses also said advanced security technology – for instance robot cameras that track suspects – was a growing area with £1.7bn of sales a year, up £200m on 2016.
G4S runs 6,500 large cash recycling devices for companies such as US retail titan Walmart to process till collections and automatically count money.
This is 1,300 more than last year. And it also has 12,000 so- called smart safes, less bulky devices that do a similar job for smaller shopping firms, up from 9,400 in 2016. These can even automatically contact the business’s bank to say a cash collection is needed.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch was seen taking a punt on bookmaker William Hill as it upgraded its rating to ‘buy’ from ‘underperform’ on the stock. The bank said that despite the potential for a government crackdown on fixedodds betting terminals, the stock was still ‘ an attractive value opportunity’.
A review of the gambling machines, which have been dubbed the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’, was announced in October 2016, with the Government due to report back next year. Restrictions being considered include slashing the maximum stake from anywhere from £50 to as little as £2.
Once the dust has settled on the regulatory front, shareholders may be encouraged by the prospect of a few potential mergers in the sector, namely that between
Ladbrokes Coral and GVC Holdings (down 0.4pc or 4p to 901p). Ladbrokes Coral has also refused to be dampened by the Government’s review rising by 1.6pc, or 2.2p, to close at 136.2p.
William Hill was up by 4.3pc, or 11.3p, closing at 272.1p.
Investors in Tyman, a supplier of engineered components to the door and window industry, were left out in the cold after a profit warning sent the stock price down 6.5pc, or 23p, to 329p. Broker Jefferies cut the firm’s share price target to 390p from 420p.
Failing to charm shareholders on Tuesday was Paragon Enter
tainment after it announced that full-year earnings were likely to be significantly lower than previous expectations at around £0.7m. Paragon, which has designed recent visitor experiences at London Zoo and Blackpool Pleasure Beach, attributed the shortfall to the deferral of two major projects, delays and cost over-runs at other projects, and higher overheads.
Shares closed at a 52-week low, falling by 25.4pc, or 0.75p, to 2.2p. Shares in data security company
Blancco Technology soared by a nearly 50pc on Tuesday as it delivered its 2016-17 results.
The firm, which specialises in data erasure, has been under pressure from investors of late after its share price fell from 321p since March following a profit warning. However, traders have faith that the firm’s management is getting its act together. Blancco closed 47.7pc or 26p at 80.5p. A tiddler of stock it may be, but
Armadale Capital, a diversified investment company, enjoyed a 24pc (0.38p) increase in its stock price, taking it to 1.92p, after it reported on ‘excellent’ drilling results from its Mahenge Liandu Graphite Project in Tanzania.