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G4S abandons proposed acquisition of ISS
1st of November 2011
Global security group G4S has this morning announced that it will not now purchase Denmark-based building services giant ISS, as announced last month. The deal was set to be worth almost six billion euros.
In an official statement Ole Andersen, chairman of the board of ISS said: "In July our owner - FS Invest - was approached by G4S proposing to combine our two companies. There was a strong industrial and commercial rationale in the proposal and therefore we pursued the opportunity.
"However it became evident after the announcement of the potential combination that G4S's shareholders would not support the acquisition, due to the size and perceived complexity of the deal against the current macroeconomic backdrop. As a consequence our owner has agreed with G4S that the proposed acquisition should not proceed and we should get back to running our separate businesses and pursuing our respective goals."
G4S chairman Alf Duch-Pedersen endorsed this: "We believe that developing our business towards an enhanced security and integrated facilities services model is the way forward in the longer term and we saw ISS as an excellent opportunity to achieve this aim.
"However, following the announcement of the acquisition, shareholders have raised concerns particularly over its scale and perceived complexity against the backdrop of current macro-economic uncertainty," he said.
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