* GardaWorld withdraws no-increase statement for G4S
* Canadian firm says it is considering options
* G4S says announcement does not change intention to
recommend
Allied offer
(Adds comment from G4S)
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Canada's GardaWorld on Wednesday gave
itself the option of increasing its bid for G4S after
the British security company agreed a 3.8 billion pound ($5.10
billion) takeover with a rival.
G4S on Tuesday agreed to a takeover by Allied Universal,
picking the U.S. company over Canadian rival GardaWorld after a
two-month long bidding war. It had rejected GardaWorld's offer
of 235 pence per share in favour of Allied's bid, which was 10
pence higher.
GardaWorld said it had withdrawn a no-increase statement in
relation to its G4S offer price.
G4S said that GardaWorld's latest announcement did not
change its intention to unanimously recommend Allied Universal's
offer.
Shares in G4S, one of the world's largest private security
companies, hit their highest level since Aug. 18 earlier on
Wednesday. They were up 0.4% at 256.2 pence at 1511 GMT.
Some analysts expect GardaWorld to raise its bid for G4S,
but they also said Allied Universal should have more cost
synergies given its greater geographic overlap with G4S.
"Our sense from reading all of Garda's documentation in
recent months is that it strongly wants to acquire G4S. A
further bid from Garda could maybe prompt a raised offer from
Allied," Panmure Gordon analyst Robert Plant said.
GardaWorld also said that G4S shareholders who had already
accepted its latest offer would have the right of withdrawal for
a period of eight days, starting Wednesday.
($1 = 0.7457 pounds)
(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar, Yadarisa Shabong and Tanishaa
Nadkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Jane
Merriman)
