Rentokil Initial, the battered services group, has issued its fourth profits warning in just seven months, sending the shares plunging 32 per cent to a ten-year low of 70p.

Laying the blame firmly at the door of his predecessors, Alan Brown, the new chief executive, reported continuing difficulties in a number of businesses, "virtually all of which originate from poorly executed restructuring or acquisition-integration programmes initiated between 2005 and 2007".

Mr Brown was annnounced as the successor to Doug Flynn in March. John McAdam replaced former chairman Brian McGowan in May. Mr Brown said this morning that, while the troubled City Link delivery offshoot was making good progress in improving service levels, the problems associated with the restructuring of the UK washrooms business and the integration of washrooms and pest control acquisitions in Australia had continued.

Previous profit warnings from Rentokil arrived in December, February and April.

Mr Brown said that as a result of the continuing difficulties, the group's forecast for profits before tax and amortisation for the current financial year to end-December was being reduced from £150 million, announced in May, to £115 million.

He said the transfer of accountability from branches and depots to regional or central teams had been a "major problem".

"I remain robust in my belief that this is the correct agenda to pursue and that Rentokil Initial has significant potential over the medium to long term."

Once one of the most admired companies on the stock market under former chairman Sir Clive Thompson, Rentokil has become entangled in mounting and seemingly intractable problems over the past two or three years.

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