Gardaworld advisers set for £312m payday in G4S bid
Advisers to Gardaworld are in line for a £312m payout from the Canadian firm’s hostile takeover bid for outsourcing giant G4S.
Banks, lawyers, accountants and PR professionals are set to share a reward package ranging from £13m to £312m if Gardaworld’s £3bn bid is successful.
In a takeover document published yesterday, Gardaworld said it will pay up to £100m to Barclays, UBS, Jeffries and Bank of America for financial and corporate broking advice.
A further £180m could be handed to banks that provide financing for the deal, while lawyers are set to earn £18m and PR advisers including London-based Montfort could net £7m.
Gardaworld, which is 51 per cent owned by private equity fund BC Partners, last month sparked a bitter tussle with G4S after tabling a 190p per share offer for its FTSE 250 rival.
G4S has rejected the bid, but the Canadian company has repeatedly urged shareholders to ask the board to enter into negotiations.
In this document Gardaworld boss Stephan Cretier launched a fresh salvo at G4S for its “baseless optimism” and “history of operational missteps”.
“Simply said, a cookie-cutter approach will not succeed in fixing G4S’s operations,” he said. “This operation needs a deep root and branch reprogramming.”
A G4S spokesperson said: “There is nothing new here. The terms of the offer remain unchanged from those contained in Gardaworld’s announcement on 30 September, which the board unanimously rejected on the basis that it significantly undervalues the company and its prospects and is not in the best interests of shareholders or other stakeholders.”
G4S, which has roughly 533,000 employees, offers security services and is managing the UK’s coronavirus test centres. However, it has been embroiled in controversy in recent years over its handling of government work, and was stripped of its contract to run Birmingham prison.
Gardaworld has already upped its bid twice, but top investors have said the 190p per share offer still undervalues the firm. Its shares closed at 208.9p last week.
G4S last week said it had also received interest from rival suitor Allied Universal, which is one of the largest security firms in the US.