Accordingly, the board of directors of G4S will not put any resolutions to the shareholder meeting convened for 2 November and will not be proceeding with the rights issue or other financing required for the acquisition.

Alf Duch-Pedersen, Chairman of G4S, said: “We believe that developing our business towards an enhanced security and integrated facilities services model is the way forward in the longer term and we saw ISS as an excellent opportunity to achieve this aim. However, following the announcement of the acquisition, shareholders have raised concerns particularly over its scale and perceived complexity against the backdrop of current macro-economic uncertainty.

Nick Buckles, Chief Executive of G4S, said: “We are obviously disappointed that we have not been able to complete this transaction. We felt strongly that the combination of G4S and ISS would create a market-leading integrated security and facilities services company which would be well placed to meet the growing needs of customers and deliver significant investment returns at the same time. However, we respect the importance of shareholders' views and, on the basis of feedback received since the transaction was announced, we have decided not to proceed.

The combined group would have had more than 1 million employees in more than 130 countries and combined revenue of £15.9 billion.