Look back at the battle for security specialist
Allied Universal made the highest bid in an auction for Britain’s G4S, defeating a final bid from Canada’s Gardaworld after a months-long battle for the security specialist. Here is a look at the British security company’s history, tracing its roots back more than a 100 years to Scandinavia.
1901-1990s: businesses offering night patrols on bicycles and motorized ambulances are set up in Scandinavia and britain that later spawn three main groups through various deals over decades: Securicor (based in britain), Falck (denmark) and Sweden’s Group 4 (Total Security)
Early 2000s: Mergers and acquisitions continue: Group 4 Falck is established that eventually becomes Group 4 Securicor and is listed on the London Stock exchange
2006: G4S brand is rolled out
2007: G4S enters the FTSE 100 index, but has since been demoted to the FTSE 250 mid-cap index
2013: Ashley Almanza joins G4S as chief executive
2019, May: Gardaworld pulls back interest in G4S after earlier having said it was considering a cash offer for some or all of the company. It never made a formal proposal to G4S during the offer period.
2020, February: G4S agrees to sell most of cash handling business to brinks in a 727-million-pound deal
2020, September: G4S rejects 190-pence-a-share hostile bid from Gardaworld revealing it had earlier rejected two more proposals. The proposal had valued the uk-listed company at 2.97 billion pounds
2020, October: Allied universal expresses interest in making an offer for G4S
2020, December: G4S agrees to be bought out by Allied for 3.8 billion pounds, or 245 pence per share
2021, January: Gardaworld extends buyout offer period for a fifth time
2021, February: Allied universal extends buyout offer period for a second time, while a media report disclosed G4S planned to hold talks with the Takeover Panel. The $5-billion-plus bid battle for britain’s G4S is settled by a rare head-to-head auction after neither of its two North American suitors prevailed.