Reuters: Sports News: S&P eyes possible G4S downgrade after Olympics flop

Reuters: Sports News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

S&P eyes possible G4S downgrade after Olympics flop Jul 20th 2012, 13:08 LONDON | Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:08am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's put under-fire security firm G4S on alert for a possible downgrade, warning its failings in a high-profile contract for the London Olympics could result in the group losing out on future work. G4S, the world's largest security firm, has been at the center of a political and media storm after admitting it would not be able to provide the 10,400 Olympic venue guards it had been contracted to, causing huge embarrassment to government and costing the firm up to 50 million pounds. Standard & Poor's placed its 'BBB/A-2' rating on the firm on "creditwatch negative" on Friday and said it intended to take a firmer decision once it had met with G4S management following the Olympics to assess the impact of the group's failings. "We recognize that the London 2012 Olympics is an extremely high-profile event and that the impact of G4S' underperformance could extend beyond the government sector and outside the UK," it said in a statement. It added that it may take several months or years to determine the full impact of reputational damage on G4S's revenues as such damage could make it more difficult for it to win new work or force it to bid at lower prices. The agency said that following post-Olympic discussions a ratings cut could occur if G4S incurred a larger than anticipated financial cost or if it suffered "significant losses of contracts and competitiveness". At 1300 GMT, G4S shares, which have dropped around 15 percent in little more than a week, were 0.7 percent lower at 241.9 pence. (Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by Mark Potter) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions