British private security and cash handling company, G4S, is planning to cut as many as 1,150 U.K. jobs in an effort to cut costs, according a report from Reuters.

The company cited the increase in digital payments during the coronavirus pandemic as a main cause for the job cuts.

"Following a review of our Cash Solutions operational footprint in the U.K., we are proposing to reshape the business," Paul van der Knaap, the G4S managing director in the U.K, said in the report.

The GMB, the general trade union for the U.K, said plans to restructure the company will put 1,150 jobs at risk. The company employs approximately 25,000 people in the U.K. The union is in talks with the company in an attempt to secure those jobs.

G4S reported an annual loss in 2019 after it took a 291 million pounds (US $367 million) impairment charge related to its cash handling business. The company sold the majority of its cash-handling operations to the U.S. company, Brinks, in February 2020, but retained control of its U.K. business, according to the report.

Shares in the company did rise approximately 9% when an announcement earlier this year claimed the company expected to surpass expectations for the first half of the year's profits. The positive outlook gave investors a well-needed boost after the company lost a lucrative contract for the Birmingham prison, and the opportunity to invest in the company was turned down by Norway's health fund.

The company has been instructed to pay 44.4 million pounds (US$ 55 million) to Britain's fraud office to avoid criminal charges in an investigation of fraudulent billing for electronic tagging services, according to the report.