Orlando shooter was employee of global security firm G4S

By REUTERS

June 15, 2016

Latest : World

Before Sunday morning, few Americans had heard of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen’s British headquartered employer, G4S, the world’s largest global security firm, which employs more than 610,000 people in 110 countries.
In the United States alone, G4S security guards stand watch over airports, water and power plants, nuclear facilities, immigration detention centres and even, as in the case of Mateen, gated communities.
Since 2008, G4S Secure Solutions — the company’s American subsidiary — has received nearly $830 million worth of federal, state and local government contracts, including for the Department of Homeland Security, according to the SmartProcure database. Its private clients include Google and J.P. Morgan Chase.
News that the gunman who killed 49 people in a packed gay nightclub in Orlando was a G4S employee wiped almost £200 million ($282.80 million) off the company on Monday, but some financial analysts said they expect little long-term damage to the company. Indeed, the attack could increase growth in the private security industry, they said.
“Individual major security incidents have rarely had any long-term effect on the specific companies that may be connected,” said Jeff Kessler an analyst for Imperial Capital. “They do serve as a strong backdrop for the industry revenue growth - as the world is perceived as ‘less safe.’”
G4S made headlines in 2012 when it announced it could not provide the promised 10,400 security guards only two weeks before the London Olympics. The announcement wiped $1 billion off its market value and the British government had to draft in thousands of troops as reinforcements.