The figures show that total revenues rose 10.4 per cent to £7.5 billion ($11.2 billion/€8.6 billion) and, excluding the cost of the bungled Olympics contract – announced last month at £88 million ($132 million/€101 million) - the company posted an annual operating profit increase of six per cent to £516 million ($772 million/€593 million).

But, if the London 2012 figures are taken into account, the company's figures look a lot less rosy, a fact reflected on the FTSE 100 at the start of trading this morning when G4S was the worst performer, shouldering a 3.5 per cent fall in its shares.

The British firm was heavily criticise when it revealed it could not provide the required 10,400 guards for last year's Olympics with just days to go to the start of the Games.

In what the company's chief executive Nick Buckles called a "humiliating shambles", it admitted that only 4,000 guards were trained and ready for the opening of London 2012, forcing the Government to commit 3,500 military personnel to fill the security void.


The group has since shown signs of recovery, securing British Government and commercial contracts, and its emerging markets division performed strongly with revenue up 15 per cent to help soften the blow of the Olympics debacle.

It has also spoken of receiving Government assurances that its London 2012 failure would not hinder its chances of winning work in future.

Despite the setbacks G4S suffered last year, Buckles remained optimistic about the future and moved to restore confidence in the firm's abilities.

"Our 2012 financial results reflect the significant exceptional costs associated with the Olympic contract and our overhead reduction programme together with the large impairment charge related to the discontinued US Government Solutions business," he said.

"Despite these issues, the underlying business has performed well in 2012 with an acceleration in organic turnover growth to 7 per cent and with margins holding at over 7 per cent.


"The acceleration in organic growth was due largely to a number of new North American commercial and UK Government contracts and continued strong growth in developing markets and was achieved despite continued economic challenges in Europe.

"Our developing markets business now accounts for a third of group revenues and continues to grow strongly and our recent acquisitions in Brazil, Vanguarda and Interativa, are performing well.

"The breadth of our portfolio in over 125 countries continues to present many new growth opportunities and we continue to see good opportunities for outsourcing in key sectors such as Government, financial institutions, aviation, oil and gas, mining and ports.

"Our market leading businesses, broad customer base and £3.5 billion ($5.2 billion/€4 billion) per annum contract pipeline give us confidence in the outlook for the group."

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