G4S acquires Belgian businesses

Security firm G4S, whose boss Nick Buckles survived attempts to oust him following the Olympic Games problems, has bought two Belgian companies for just under three million pounds.

Security firm G4S, whose boss Nick Buckles survived attempts to oust him following the Olympic Games problems, has bought two Belgian companies for just under three million pounds.

It's a small investment for GFS, which has a £3.7bn market cap, intended to enable G4S Belgium to diversify and broaden its reach into the higher margin niche safety market.

The company numbers among its institutional shareholders Tweedy Browne, the renowned US value investing firm.

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Consensus forecasts for the year ending December 31st 2012 are for pre-tax profits of £392m on turnover of £8.1bn. It offers a prospective yield of 3.3%.

CM