GEO Group sells its Adelanto ICE complex to DHS for $950 million and lifts its buyback to $1.25 billion

GEO Group shares were up 4.83% at $32.88 at 10:07 a.m. ET on Monday, October 5, 2026, after the prison and detention operator said it had sold its Adelanto, California immigration detention complex to the U.S. government for $950 million and raised its share repurchase authorization to $1.25 billion from $500 million. The Department of Homeland Security bought the three buildings, which hold 2,644 beds, on Friday, October 2, and GEO will keep running them for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under its existing contract.

GEO expects about $705 million of net proceeds after taxes and transaction costs and plans to use the money to cut debt, repurchase shares and for general corporate purposes. The price works out to about $359 thousand a bed. GEO announced the sale before the open, and the shares rose in premarket trading.

What GEO sold, and what it kept

The complex is made up of the 1,280-bed Adelanto West ICE Processing Center, the 660-bed Adelanto East center and the 704-bed Desert View Annex. GEO will keep operating all three under its existing ICE support services contract, which currently runs to December 19, 2029, with options to 2034, and ICE keeps its standard termination rights. With the buildings sold, GEO's place at Adelanto rests on that operating contract alone.

GEO's second sale of a facility to a government in 14 months

Adelanto follows the July 2025 sale of the company-owned Lawton Correctional Facility to the State of Oklahoma. GEO handed the Lawton operations to the state along with the building, whereas it keeps running Adelanto, which also fetched about three times the price.

How big the proceeds are for GEO

At the end of June GEO had about $1.54 billion of debt and $55 million of cash, for net debt of about $1.5 billion and net leverage below three times trailing adjusted EBITDA. The $705 million of net proceeds is close to half of that net debt. It also equals roughly five quarters of adjusted EBITDA at the second-quarter rate of $142.0 million, a quarter in which revenue rose 15% to $732.1 million.

GEO introduced a $300 million repurchase authorization in August 2025, less than two weeks after Lawton closed, and the authorization stood at $500 million by June 30, 2026. Through June 30 it had bought back about 10.1 million shares for about $177 million, including 1.6 million shares for $36.6 million in the second quarter, which left $323 million of room. The October 5 increase adds $750 million to that, before any purchases made in the third quarter, and the authorization now runs to December 31, 2029.

How GEO stock traded on the news

GEO closed Friday at $31.36. A headline at 9:36:32 a.m. ET reported the gain on the sale and the larger buyback. From a $32.39 reference at that moment, 3.28% above the Friday close, the stock rose to $32.53 a minute later, up 0.43%, then eased to $32.16 after eleven minutes, down 0.71% from the reference but still above the Friday close, and by 10:07 a.m. it had climbed to $32.88. The release had crossed before the open, so the chart shows how the opening gain held up during the first quarter-hour of regular trading.