G4s Share Discussion Threads

[mail2] 23/7/2012 16:21

Security at Newcastle United's stadium taken from G4S into local authority control.

[hvs] 22/7/2012 12:33

And they is all from OXBRIDGE Eton and Harrow.

They knows how to MILK it without a cow in sight.

[hvs] 22/7/2012 12:01

Why is it that it is so many Scots ? Whisky is it ?

Anyone remeber Dopey brown or his "adviser" Fred who shred RBS.

Salmond to the rescue. Give them another parliament.

[gurp] 18/7/2012 10:28

...........are many members of this so-called government any better? but divert any blame from themselves

ironic vaz asking about people speaking English after all the immigration, even many indigenous British have problems with 'fluent' these days, I mean, y'know

[valedo] 18/7/2012 10:03

Apocalypse now for the hapless Mr Buckles

Keith Vaz, the Grand Inquisitor, loves a little bit of drama. Well, OK, a lot. Yesterday, after he and the Home Affairs Select Committee reduced the G4S chief executive, Nick Buckles, to something close to roadkill, Mr Vaz delivered this brutal summary.

"Unacceptable. Incompetent. Amateurish."

Mr Buckles looked so cowed that he could have been a Holstein.

The Great Vaz, speaking from a very great height, wasn't finished: "Those words best express our deep concern about the way this has been handled. In the end, Mr Buckles, it is a matter for you to decide what you do about your future."

Mr Buckles blinked. I could see him thinking: "Was it over? Am I alive? Can I go home please?"

What an extraordinary event it was. Mr Buckles was accompanied by a man named Ian Horseman-Sewell. As soon as I saw that name, I felt an apocalypse coming on. I wasn't wrong. Beforehand, we had wondered if Nick Buckles would buckle. But, soon it became clear that he had arrived, pre-buckled. By the end, he was as near to concave as a witness has ever been.

Mr Buckled was so hapless that it was hard to believe that he was the chief executive and paid £830,000 - except for that tan. He had the rich glow that only money can buy and the looks of a junior international playboy: slim-cut suit, foppish hair, expensive specs. Mr Horseman, the account manager for (not) delivering the Games contract, had a gangster-pinstriped suit with one of those awful Olympic badges. As a team, they looked very dodgy.

"Why are you still in post?" demanded the Great Vaz.

Mr Buckled whispered something about delivering the contract. "It's not about me," he said, adding that he was the right person to do this. "My future is my third concern," he added lamely.

He was made to flail himself, telling us how sorry he was. He was embarrassed, deeply disappointed, very sorry indeed. He'd first known that things were going wrong on July 3 when he was on holiday in the States (tan maintenance takes time). It was a "very unique" contract because it was "back-ended" with a "massive pipeline". It was all about "cascade".

David Winnick, the Labour MP who is beginning to resemble a Galapagos tortoise, attacked: "Your reputation is in tatters."

He muttered: "I think at the moment I would agree with you."

Mr Winnick shouted: "It's a humiliating shambles. Yes or no?"

"I cannot disagree with you . . . " mumbled Mr Buckled.

The patented Buckled masochism strategy was working in that I almost felt sorry for him but, in the end, he was too weak. Vague. Limp. Unfocused. Tellingly, the only thing he seemed sure about was that G4S wasn't going to hand back its £57 million management fee despite the fact that little proper managing had gone on. The nadir came when he was asked about his statement that he wasn't sure if the guards they had recruited spoke English.

Why wasn't he sure? "The question I was asked was 'fluent English'," he noted. "That was a question I didn't know how to answer. I didn't know what fluent English was."

The Vaz: "What do you think fluent English is?

"I don't know."

The Vaz: "What are we speaking today?"

"I don't know."

The Vaz: "You don't know whether you are speaking fluent English?"

At this, Mr Winnick boomed out: "Fluent English is what we are speaking at the moment!"

See what I mean by hopeless? Can Mr Buckled be for real?
(Times parliamentary sketch)

[skinny] 18/7/2012 07:05

"Collapse in value of G4S shares places security firm on radar for potential takeover, City experts say"

Typical reaction of 'City experts'. The shares are down (I am short) but hardly a collapse - yet.

[philanderer] 18/7/2012 00:23

Collapse in value of G4S shares places security firm on radar for potential takeover, City experts say

Read more:

[cfb2] 17/7/2012 23:36

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
-- Warren Buffett

I think the share price is reflecting the Olympic contract having a knock-on effect with other government contracts, currently £600m of them. It will take time for G4S to rebuild their reputation after this.

Much that I enjoyed the car crash TV earlier today, Buckles had no option but to live upto his name. Had he taken an aggresive position with the questions today and not buckled no government would put any further business their way for years. Whilst this mess will give companies power on price at the negotiating table, and less profit margin for G4S, there are few companies big enough to provide security on this scale.

I'll be watching their share price for a while yet to see how this settles. Good luck to any of you brave enough to take a position over the next few weeks.

CFB

[grahamite2] 17/7/2012 20:31

So you sold out, grahamburn. LOL.

If the £57m management fee is withheld, it would be immaterial to turnover but very significant to the bottom line. The fall in share price reflects this quite closely without even taking account of reputational damage.

The last big spike down proved an excellent buying opportunity but it might well be just a bit early to get back in yet.

[grahamburn] 17/7/2012 20:25

Perhaps some of the people who inhabit bulletin boards would like to apply for the CEO's job if it's THAT simple to grow a company to £7.5 billion turnover and 675,000 permanent (as opposed to casual short term) employees, not all of whom are dismally paid!!

Not making any case whatsoever for the appalling mess of the Olympic contract. Simply putting it in perspective - as the Times Business Editor and the boss of Invesco Perpetual have: both of whom are certainly not monkeys or bus drivers when it comes to understanding business and investment.

PS And before anyone asks, I have made a short term investment decision and realised my holding in the company whilst waiting to see how much reputational damage has been done to the company which may well stall its growth.

[jon827] 17/7/2012 20:19

Yer I agree the business of security has obviously been a good and profitable one over the years but maybe it would have been with or without Mr Buckles? as grahamite says when it came to the crunch maybe found wanting? you could say he is directly responsible for the two big gaps in the chart

[grahamite2] 17/7/2012 20:10

Since it was formed ..... G4S has provided a total shareholder return of 361 per cent

Employing desperate people to do awful jobs on dismal pay will always be a winner while there are enough desperate people. But as jon says, a monkey could run a company with a business model that simple.

As soon as an unusual challenge came up, they failed.

Long term I'm sure this will just be a hiccup and the share price will recover. But it's hard to see why the CEO should be paid more than, say, a bus driver.

[jon827] 17/7/2012 17:15

maybe the company basically runs its self and any muppet could do it?

[cfb2] 17/7/2012 13:57

M.T.Glass: If you are employed by a company at director level and you make an agreement under oath (implicit if you appear before a house of commons commitee) the company is liable. It doesn't matter whether he is fired afterwards :)

I bet all his colleagues were shouting at the TV to "quick, fire him now...don't wait for him to finish!"

CFB