* GardaWorld makes all-cash offer of 190p/G4S share
* G4S shares jump 24% to 181 pence
* GW encourages G4S shareholders to press for board's
engagement
(Adds analyst comment, background on G4S, updates shares)
By Yadarisa Shabong
Sept 14 (Reuters) - Canada's GardaWorld Security said on
Monday it had made a 2.95 billion pound ($3.8 billion) offer to
buy British rival G4S, but that the London-listed firm's
board had dismissed attempts to engage on the bid.
Shares in G4S jumped 25% to 182.5 pence as of 1307 GMT,
just shy of the 190 pence per share offer, which represents a
premium of about 30% to its last close.
GardaWorld said it had encouraged G4S shareholders to
"mandate their board's engagement" with the offer after its
attempts to engage with the board were "summarily dismissed or
ignored on three occasions".
G4S, whose shares have lost around 33% of their value this
year up until Friday's close, did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
GardaWorld last year considered a cash offer for some or all
of G4S, but opted not pursue that interest in May. Two months
later private equity BC Partners bought a majority stake in the
Canadian firm.
In the past year G4S has had to allay investor concerns
after several setbacks, including charges that some executives
defrauded the Ministry of Justice, the loss of a contract to run
a Birmingham prison, and Norway's wealth fund shunning
investments in the firm.
It sold off most of its cash-handling business in February
to U.S. peer Brinks Co, and in July announced plans to
lay off some employees at its retained UK cash operations, which
have attached pension obligations.
"G4S needs an owner, not a manager," said Stephan Cretier,
founder and chief executive of GardaWorld.
Cretier said he understood G4S's importance as a UK employer
and steps would be taken to address the company's "underfunding"
of UK pension obligations.
"Since the pandemic G4S's valuation has made it more
appealing, whilst revenues of about 7 billion pounds annually
remain far ahead of GW," said Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.
"This will be the tiddler swallowing the whale," he added.
As a read-across, shares in Sweden's Securitas
gained about 2.5%.
GardaWorld, which provides armored cars, cash-handling
services and automated teller machine maintenance, said in a
statement it first approached G4S on June 15.
($1 = 0.7772 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by
Shinjini Ganguli and Jan Harvey)
