G4S chief executive Ashley Almanza receives 73% pay rise

The chief executive of G4S, Ashley Almanza, has been rewarded with a 73 per cent pay increase for returning the outsourcing giant to profit after scandals surrounding staffing at the 2012 Olympics and overcharging on contracts.

Mr Almanza, who took the helm of G4S in May 2013 following the departure of Nick Buckles, earned £2.5m in 2014. His pay was boosted by a £1.3m cash bonus, up from £648,000 the previous year. His base salary rose to £890,000 in 2014. He had received £600,000 the previous year.

Mr Almanza's 2013 salary package reflected the fact that he had been in the chief executive role for seven months. He joined the group on April 1 2013, first as chief financial officer, before taking the top job on June 1 the same year.

The company said: "G4S has structured its remuneration packages to drive the financial, operational and cultural changes necessary to ensure our business is both delivering for stakeholders and able to take advantage of the long-term growth opportunities."

G4S came under attack last year over Mr Almanza's pay. Some shareholders questioned his 2013 pay package, awarded when the company was reeling after being referred to the Serious Fraud Office for overcharging UK taxpayers for tagging offenders.

But Stephen Rawlinson, analyst at Whitman Howard, said the rewards were in line with heads of other large, successful global services businesses such as Compass and Sodexo. "The turnround at G4S is still in progress, but a stable, successful business has been created and it will get much better," he said.

"Compared with the rewards available elsewhere, the salary is not excessive. If G4S had failed, which was a possibility, the impact on its 620,000 employees and thousands of shareholders would have been devastating; £2.5m is not a high price to pay."

Richard Cousins, chief executive of Compass, earned a total package of £2,652,000 in the year to September 2014. This included a basic salary of £970,000, a bonus of £1.3m, £42,000 taxable benefits and a £340,000 pension

Michel Landel, the Sodexo chief, earned a total package of €2,835,000 in 2014, including a base salary of €933,000, a bonus of €1.9m and additional benefits worth €2,400

Ruby McGregor-Smith, chief executive of Mitie, earned £1,447,266 in the year to March 2014, including a base salary of £526,000, a bonus of £757,966, benefits worth £20,399 and a pension worth £142,901

The world's biggest security company by market capitalisation, G4S swung back into the black in 2014 after two lossmaking and scandal-ridden years, reporting a pre-tax profit of £148m against a loss of £190m the previous year. This was despite continued problems with lossmaking contracts in the UK, including one providing housing for asylum seekers, which has also hit rival Serco.

Separately, Serco said on Friday that shareholders had backed a rights issue. The support indicated that efforts by Rupert Soames, chief executive, to turn the troubled outsourcing group round have been well received.

Serco, which announced a month ago that it was to press ahead with a £555m rights issue after a steep £1.35bn loss for 2014, said it had received valid acceptances for almost 95 per cent of the ordinary shares to be issued.

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A series of disasters, one involving the electronic tagging of offenders for the British government, have wiped almost £3.5bn off the value of the company, and the shares have tumbled more than 70 per cent in the past 18 months.

Mr Soames was brought in last May to revive the business's fortunes after Chris Hyman lost his job in the wake of the scandals.

The proceeds of the fundraising, which is fully underwritten, will be used to cut Serco's debt by £450m. At the end of the year Serco's net debt stood at £682m.

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