LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) – Tesco boss Philip Clarke has decided not to take an annual bonus of about 372,000 pounds ($588,000) after the retailer’s poor performance in its main British market, heading off a potential outcry by investors increasingly critical of executive pay.

The world’s third-biggest retailer, which issued a shock profit warning in January, also said on Tuesday its top 5,000 managers would receive a reduced annual bonus representing 16.9 percent of their maximum entitlement.

Executive directors will get 13.5 percent of the maximum.

Tesco shares have lost almost a quarter of their value this year after the supermarket group warned it needed to invest around 1 billion pounds in a bid to stem market share losses in Britain.

“I decided at the beginning of the year that I would decline my annual bonus for 2012,” Clarke said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

“I wasn’t satisfied with the performance in the UK and I won’t take the bonus. I’m confident that we’re tackling the right issues.”

Clarke, a former Tesco shelf stacker, would have been entitled to a payout of about 372,000 pounds had he taken the 13.5 percent being paid to other executive directors.

LONDON (Reuters) – HomeServe’s woes grew further on Tuesday after the British repair and insurance group said mis-sold policy issues which have dogged it since October would now be investigated by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority.

HomeServe’s shares tumbled 23 percent to 174.4 pence on Tuesday at 0827 GMT, having already fallen 53 percent since it suspended British telesales last year to address concerns internally over how its policies were being marketed and sold.

The group, which sells cover for, and fixes, boilers and burst pipes, now faces months of waiting for an FSA probe that will investigate those issues as well the company’s controls and governance processes, it said.

Since October HomeServe has retrained sales staff with new scripts and clarified policy limitations and prices on marketing material, as well as its relationship with its partners.

“The identification of the regulatory issues in our UK business in October 2011 has made this the most challenging year in HomeServe’s history,” a company statement read as the firm reported an expected 8 percent rise in adjusted pretax profit to 126 million pounds ($199 million) for the year to March 31.

Suspended telesales and the subsequent gloom caused by its own investigation saw 2012 customer numbers fall by 300,000 in its core UK business, which accounts for around 80 percent of group operating profit, with the number of policies taken out across Britain dropping by 800,000.

HomeServe said the next year would be one of transition for its UK arm as it outlined plans to reduce customer numbers by 500,000 to around 2.2 million. It hopes to limit customer churn and maintain retention rates of 80 percent by focusing on higher value policies on core products instead of discounted offers.

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – De La Rue has drawn up contingency plans to print drachma banknotes should Greece exit the euro and approach the British money printer, an industry source told Reuters on Friday.

The news comes as EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Friday the European Commission and the European Central Bank are working on an emergency scenario in case Greece has to leave the euro zone – the first time an EU official has confirmed the existence of contingency plans.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that as a commercial printer De La Rue needed to be alive to the possibility of a Greek exit from the single currency and prepare accordingly.

Crisis-hit Greece will be led by an emergency government into new elections on June 17 which will ultimately determine whether it must quit the euro – possibly spreading financial devastation across the continent.

An exit from Europe’s single currency would spark a major demand for the returning drachma and while the country’s state printers could orchestrate its production, a handful of global firms like De La Rue could be called on to help.

Buffeted equity investors looking for respite from the Greek turmoil have been busy buying up De La Rue shares in anticipation, helping push them up 11 percent in the last month.

Panmure analyst Paul Jones said the firm would be in with a chance of work if extra capacity was needed and could also benefit from other work as Greek printers were less likely to be quoting for contracts elsewhere.

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) – G4S, the world’s biggest security firm, said a thriving resources sector across developing markets and a contract to protect punters at London’s Olympic Games helped to drive a 7.5 percent rise in first-quarter revenue growth.

G4S, which grabbed headlines last year when a 5.2 billion pound ($8.4 billion) deal to buy Danish cleaning firm ISS collapsed under investor opposition, said strong growth in emerging markets had helped push organic revenue to 7 percent for the three months to March 31.

The figure was up from 4.5 percent in its last quarter and in line with expectations. Shares in the firm – the world’s second largest private employer behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc – were up 3.1 percent to 275.1 pence at 0905 GMT.

“Based on recent contract awards, outsourcing trends and the group’s bid pipeline, the organic growth rate is expected to continue to improve during 2012,” a statement read.

G4S, which runs services from cash transportation to operating prisons around the world, is the official security provider for the 2012 Games, supplying 10,000 personnel for the event in a contract worth 200 million pounds to the firm.

The Olympics deal will earn G4S 150 million pounds of revenue in 2012 and is one of many British contracts it is starting this year. Others include running services such as IT, custody and training for Lincolnshire Police and providing accommodation and transport to asylum seekers across Britain.

Strong growth in developing markets in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East also boosted revenues at both its core security division, where it won a number of contracts in oil, gas and mining sectors, and at its cash handling business.

LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) – Britain’s Royal Mail said plans to turn over half of its main London sorting office - Mount Pleasant – into a prime residential hub will be submitted next spring, as the group tries to boost its value ahead of a 2014 privatisation.

The 12-acre former prison site in north London is undergoing a 32 million pound ($51.72 million) facelift to increase production, move operations and parking into the building from elsewhere and free up as much as 6.5 acres of land for housing.

Royal Mail, working with architects Farrells, said local councils Islington and Camden had backed the planned 1 million square foot development, which would see as much as 85 percent of the project turned into housing next to its sorting office.

“We have a strong track record in using the proceeds from disposal of surplus property to invest in the mail operation … This is vital in order to put Royal Mail on a sound and sustainable footing for the future,” Royal Mail Property Director Martin Gafsen said.

It gave no anticipated value for the project.

With losses at its letters business hitting almost 1 billion pounds over the last four years as customers increasingly turn to email, Royal Mail has responded with a major modernisation of its operations and a condensing of its sites.

Capacity increases at sites on the outskirts of London like Croydon and Romford have left the group with a handful of owned locations inside the capital ripe for redevelopment. Most of its locations across the country are large, leased factory sites.

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) – Thomas Cook said on Wednesday ex-Kwik-Fit finance boss Michael Healy is to take over as chief financial officer from Paul Hollingworth, who will step down after helping the troubled travel firm secure a vital banking lifeline.

Hollingworth, who has been with the debt-laden tour operator for two years, will leave at the end of June. Earlier this month, he got a three-year funding deal from banks for the group worth 1.4 billion pounds ($2.26 billion) – its third refinancing in a year.

Healy, who has held finance director positions at Hong Kong listed First Pacific Company and online travel agency ebookers, played a major role in reducing risk in car repair firm Kwik-Fit’s highly-leveraged business, Thomas Cook said.

He starts his new job on July 1.

Shares in Thomas Cook, which is almost 900 million pounds in debt, were up 1 percent at 21.875 pence at 0816 GMT. They have fallen around 86 percent in the past year.

Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram said Healy appeared to tick the boxes in terms of industry experience and having worked with a highly-leveraged business but warned that Thomas Cook’s future might still be bleak.

“I think the good thing is he (Healy) has clearly got time to look at the day-to-day business on the basis that the banking deal has been done and has been put in place,” said Batram, adding that Hollingworth’s exit had been expected.

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) – British cleaning-to-pest control firm Rentokil Initial is talking to Libya’s new leaders about resuming a contract to kill rats after a rise in rodents on the streets of the capital Tripoli.

“I think the rats have certainly thrived in the environment since we have been away,” Rentokil Chief Executive Alan Brown told reporters.

Rentokil, which posted disappointing first-quarter results on Friday, cut short its 28 million euro ($36.8 million) pest control contract and withdrew from Libya last year during the civil unrest.

The company is now in talks to resume the deal and recover the money it is owed.

“I think we did a terrific job when we were there and they (rats) were really unleashed on the population when we withdrew. It seems the authorities are keen to get us back,” Brown said.

The group, which served the Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi and took a hit of just under 5 million pounds ($8.1 million) when it suspended its operations, has already resumed its commercial pest control business there.

Adjusted pretax profit for the three months to March disappointed analysts, falling 4 percent at actual exchange rates to 26.3 million pounds, with losses at its struggling City Link parcels unit widening to 12.7 million.

LONDON (Reuters) – British outsourcing group Capita (CPI.L: Quote, Profile, Research), increasingly reliant on acquisitions for growth, has raised 274 million pounds ($441 million) selling new shares to boost its war chest.

Tuesday’s placing signalled Capita’s intention of pushing on with a strategy which underpinned a 17 percent quarterly revenue rise in tough markets amid government austerity measures – the growth was mainly on the back of businesses bought last year.

Capita placed 40 million new shares – equivalent to 6.5 percent of existing issued share capital – at 685 pence via Citi and Deutsche Bank. Chief executive Paul Pindar sold 400,000 shares at the same price.

Shares in Capita, which has spent 1.3 billion pounds on acquisitions since 2005, were down 6.9 percent to 679 pence at 1245 GMT.

“The board had expected acquisition activity to reduce during 2012. However, in assessing the pipeline of potential opportunities since the preliminary results, the board has concluded that the current acquisition environment continues to offer a rare opportunity to broaden the business,” it said.

Capita, which has spent 91 million pounds on acquisitions this year, said it could spend at least as much again later in 2012 on small and medium-sized businesses to help open up new markets and win key contracts.

While it spent 341 million pounds on 21 acquisitions last year to help post a profit of 385 million pounds, organic revenues raised through contract wins fell 7 percent in tough markets hampered by government cuts and budgetary delays.

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) – British outsourcing group Capita is to strengthen its war chest with fresh equity to help fund an acquisition spree, it said when reporting quarterly revenue rose 17 percent, mainly on the back of businesses bought last year.

Capita said on Tuesday it would place around 40 million new shares – equivalent to 6.5 percent of its existing issued share capital and valued at about 290 million pounds ($467 million) based on Monday’s close at 729 pence.

Alongside the placing being managed by Citi and Deutsche Bank, chief executive Paul Pindar will sell around 400,000 ordinary shares, reducing his holding to around 1.3 million.

Shares in Capita, which has spent 1.3 billion pounds on acquisitions since 2005, were down 6.2 percent to a nine-week low at 684 pence at 1010 GMT.

“The board had expected acquisition activity to reduce during 2012. However, in assessing the pipeline of potential opportunities since the preliminary results, the board has concluded that the current acquisition environment continues to offer a rare opportunity to broaden the business,” it said.

Capita, which has spent 91 million pounds on acquisitions this year, said it could send at least as much again later in 2012 on small and medium-sized businesses to help open up new markets and win key contracts.

While it spent 341 million pounds on 21 acquisitions last year to help post a profit of 385 million pounds, organic revenues raised through contract wins fall 7 percent in tough markets hampered by government cuts and budgetary delays.

LONDON (Reuters) – G4S (GFS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) raised 600 million euros (489 million pounds) in an oversubscribed bond issue on Friday, as the world’s largest security firm proved it can whet credit investors’ appetite in spite of last year’s failed takeover of Danish firm ISS.

The five-year bond, priced inside guidance at mid-swaps +150 basis points, was ratcheted up from its original 500 million euros target due to investor demand. The book closed with around 3 billion euros of orders, according to bookrunners.

Proceeds from the transaction will be used in part to pay down debt.

The successful issue will come as a welcome boost to G4S as it looks to move on from last November’s failed 5.2-billion pound ($8.35 billion) acquisition of cleaning firm ISS, scrapped after opposition from investors.

It also cost the FTSE 100 firm 50 million pounds in fees.

G4S, official security provider for the London Olympics, said in March that it was now focusing on expanding in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil.

This month G4S hosted a series of meetings to test European investors’ appetite for credit, via Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO: Quote, Profile, Research).