Britain's embattled security firm G4S turned a corner last week after it confirmed that it swung back into profit in 2014. And it looks like G4S' senior executives are aiming to cash in too by selling their shares.
G4S, which was fined £108.9 million ($164 million) in 2013 by the UK Treasury after it found that the security group overcharged the government for providing electronic tagging services for criminals that were either dead or back in prison, confirmed in its 2014 results statement that it raked in £148 million in pretax profits.
In 2013, it made a loss of £190 million, following writedowns related to the scandal.
Its shares immediately shot up on 10 March after it announced its results. Its shares are now over 24% higher than it was a year ago. Today, the share price is around 298.50p.
So it comes as no surprise that some of the company's senior staff are cashing in while they can.
In a regulatory statement today, G4S' company secretary Peter David confirmed that the firm's group communications director (basically the head PR) Debbie Walker sold 20,000 ordinary shares on March 18, 2015. The stock was sold at £2.918 per share. The total for the sale stood at £58,360.
Walker heads the corporate communications team which focuses on the group’s "key audiences:" investors, media, government, employees and customers. She is also the vice chairman of the lobby group Confederation of British Industry (CBI) South East Regional Council (the representative body for all CBI member companies based in the South East of England and the Thames Valley).
