* GardaWorld declares 235p/share bid for G4S final
* G4S shares fell 9.8% to 242.6p
* Auction ends without revised offers for G4S
(Adds G4S comment on ESG, updates shares)
By Muvija M and Yadarisa Shabong
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Allied Universal won a months-long
takeover battle for Britain's G4S, the world's largest private
security firm, on Monday after going head-to-head in an auction
with Canadian rival GardaWorld.
Shares in G4S, which had gained 80% since GardaWorld made
its offer public in September, were down nearly 10% to 242.6
pence after Britain's Takeover Panel said the auction had
concluded with Allied's final bid of 245 pence per share,
compared with Gardaworld's 235 pence.
The management of G4S had already agreed to the offer from
Allied, which valued the company at 3.8 billion pounds ($5.3
billion), but its shareholders had held off approving numerous
extensions of both offers in the hope of a better deal.
Allied's acquisition creates an even larger private security
firm with more than 750,000 people employed worldwide as the
U.S. firm expands outside of North America.
GardaWorld said ahead of the result that it would bid no
higher in the auction, which represented a relatively rare
conclusion to a British takeover battle.
In 2018, Comcast beat Rupert Murdoch's
Twenty-First Century Fox in a bespoke-style auction for
pay-television group Sky that lasted only a day.
Analysts have said Allied should have more cost synergies
given its greater overlap with G4S in the United States. G4S,
which reported a loss in its last fiscal year, said it had 1.56
billion pounds in net debt as of mid-2020.
In an offer document last year, Allied said it planned to
evaluate the possibility of exiting the prison business and
certain markets such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Uganda.
G4S' dealings in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have
come under scrutiny, with Norway's wealth fund saying it would
no longer invest in it due to "unacceptable risk".
"We are disciplined buyers and we will not overpay for a
company with systemic ESG issues that continue to come to
light," GardaWorld boss Stephan Cretier said in a statement.
The British firm said: "G4S is committed to the highest ESG
practices and refutes any suggestion to the contrary." Allied
declined to comment.
In its 2019 annual report, G4S said it would implement a due
diligence programme starting with Europe and the Middle East to
ensure a supplier code of conduct promoting health and safety,
respecting human rights and business ethics.
G4S has faced problems in Britain, where the government took
over the running of a major prison from it after riots.
($1 = 0.7150 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru;
Editing by Rashmi Aich, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Alexander
Smith)
