Britain’s G4S has posted an 8.2 per cent rise in first-half core earnings and maintained its dividend, sending its shares 7 per cent higher as the group said it was making “substantial” progress in its turnaround plan.

Shares in the world’s largest security firm jumped on relief that the dividend – seen as vulnerable by some analysts – was maintained at 3.59 pence per share.

The company, which runs services ranging from moving cash for companies to protecting ships, is selling weak businesses under a restructuring program as it attempts to recover from a string of high-profile contract problems in Britain.

Analysts had feared that the group would be hit by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a more sluggish economy and a fall in the value of the pound making its debt in foreign currencies more expensive to service. The UK alone accounts for around one fifth of G4S’s revenues.