G4S shares jump as it heralds “positive” start to the year despite economic uncertainty
Shares in security company G4S jumped after it shrugged off economic uncertainties to herald a positive start to the year.
In a trading update released ahead of a presentation to business leaders today, Ashley Almanza, chief executive of G4S, said revenue in continuing businesses rose to £1.5bn in the three months ended 31 March.
This represents a 4.5 per cent increase from the £1.4bn it made during the same period a year earlier.
It helped the company's shares rise as much as 7.7 per cent to 198.5p in early morning trading.
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Profits on the company's preferred earnings measure PBITA increased by 6.5 per cent excluding restructuring charges of £1m, and £1m profit from the businesses it is trying to offload.
G4S is selling weak businesses under a restructuring program as it attempts to recover from a series of scandals in the UK.
"We are making good progress with the portfolio programme and are in the process of selling or closing a further 42 businesses," Almanza added.
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"We are also managing a number of onerous contracts to an effective conclusion; virtually all relating to long standing, loss making UK public service contracts."
G4S recently said that its results for 2015 were hit by a significant increase in the number of new asylum seekers between November 2015 and January 2016.