G4S shares surge after scandals

G4S has posted strong results, sending its shares soaring on signs the world’s largest security group had bounded back after previous scandals, helped by more demand for its services and a shift in focus away from the UK.

G4S, which runs services ranging from manned security in prisons to cash transportation, is selling weaker units in an overhaul after a string of high-profile contract problems in Britain, which now accounts for one fifth of its revenues.

The firm appears to have put behind it a series of scandals, including news in June that a gunman who killed 49 people in a Florida nightclub was an employee who had not been efficiently vetted.