G4S faces £80m hit this year from tax bill deferred due to Covid

Security giant G4S has said that it expects to take an £80 million hit this year from tax that the company was allowed to defer during the pandemic.

The company said that it had benefited from £110 million worth of payroll and other indirect tax deferrals last year, thanks to Government policies.

But this will have to be reversed in the current year, bosses at the firm said. Around £80 million is expected to reverse in 2021.

However, the business said it expects that to be more than made up by the sale of its cash business in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Hong Kong to the Brink’s Company.

This will give the business around £100 million in disposal proceeds in the first quarter of this year. It said £40 million has already been received of this since the start of January.

The business also said that its new and retained contracts reached an annual revenue value of £3 billion, up by half a billion pounds since 2019.

“I’d like to thank my executive team and colleagues across G4S who, in the midst of the global pandemic, delivered a remarkable operating and financial performance, and continued to improve our health and safety performance,” said chief executive Ashley Almanza.

“Our teams also produced an exceptional commercial performance with new and retained contract wins that have a total revenue value of £5.5 billion.

“These wins reflect the competitive strength of G4S’s integrated service offerings and provide strong support for G4S’s growth plans.”

In December G4S agreed a deal with US rival Allied Universal which would see the Pennsylvania-based firm take over G4S for £3.8 billion.

G4S had been at the centre of a takeover battle including Canada’s Gardaworld, a private-equity backed venture.

The deadlines for shareholders to sell their shares to either Gardaworld or Allied Universal ends this week.