* Allied offers 245 pence per share, 10 pence above
GardaWorld bid
* G4S board intends to unanimously recommend Allied offer
* G4S shares closed 3.2% higher before announcement was made
(Adds further G4S statement, background on GardaWorld bid)
By Pushkala Aripaka and Tanishaa Nadkar
Dec 8 (Reuters) - Security group G4S on Tuesday
agreed to be bought out by Allied Universal for 3.8 billion
pounds ($5.1 billion), picking the U.S. company over Canadian
rival GardaWorld and potentially ending a tense, months-long
bidding war.
Allied's offer of 245 pence per share for London-listed G4S
is 10 pence higher than GardaWorld's sweetened bid from last
week, which pegged the British company at 3.7 billion pounds.
G4S, one of the world's largest private security companies,
had last month turned down what it termed a "highly conditional"
offer from Allied Universal of 210 pence per share, while also
repeatedly rejecting advances from GardaWorld.
"The G4S Board is confident in the long-term prospects of
the business and believes this (agreed) offer represents an
excellent opportunity to create a leading global security
company," G4S chairman John Connolly said in a statement.
G4S later formally confirmed that it had rejected the
GardaWorld bid of 235 pence per share, saying it undervalued the
company.
The British company has restructured its business following
a series of setbacks, and the bidding war between the U.S. and
Canadian companies for G4S began when GardaWorld made its offers
for G4S public on Sept. 14.
Since then, G4S shares had gained about 75% in value at
Tuesday's closing price of 255.8 pence, before the deal was
announced.
G4S said it considers the terms of Allied Universal's latest
offer to be fair and reasonable and that it intended to
unanimously recommend that shareholders accept it.
GardaWorld, which had another week left until its cut-off of
Dec. 16 for shareholders to accept its offer, declined to
comment on its further plans.
It had labelled its bid last week as a final offer but
reserved the right to increase it if a rival made a firm offer.
Financial and legal advisers to G4S on the deal included
Citi, J.P. Morgan Cazenove, Goldman Sachs, Lazard and
Linklaters, while Allied Universal was advised by Morgan
Stanley, Credit Suisse, Moelis & Company, Cleary Gottlieb Steen
& Hamilton, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Kirkland & Ellis.
($1 = 0.7503 pounds)
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Tanishaa Nadkar in
Bengaluru, Keith Weir in London; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta,
Devika Syamnath, Alex Richardson and Tom Brown)
