G4S Government Solutions, the United States-based operations of Britain’s global security services provider G4S plc, on Tuesday said it has entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by an undisclosed U.S. private equity firm for $135 million and will be renamed Centerra Group, LLC.
Centerra will continue to be based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and will be the largest American owned provider of protective services to the federal government. The company’s customers include the Departments of Energy, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State, NASA and more than a dozen additional federal, state and local agencies and commercial clients in the United States and globally. The company’s services include paramilitary, security, fire and emergency protection, and K-9 facilities management.
Centerra has 8,800 employees and $500 million in sales, well off its record of $1 billion in 2010 when it benefited from federal spending through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2010.
G4S Government Solutions is the former Wackenhut Services, which merged with London-based G4S in 2002.
“The private equity firm plans on developing Centerra Group, LLC as the centerpiece for further federal and critical support investments,” Paul Donahue, president and CEO of Centerra, said in a statement. “This transaction opens an exciting new chapter for us as a corporation and gives the company significant financial and operational flexibility to enter several new markets and invest deeper in existent ones.”
Donahue has led G4S Government Solutions since 2012 and has been with the company for 20 years.
The company said it plans to diversify its capabilities through organic growth but will also launch strategic divisions in the next quarter to align with these plans. The new divisions will be National Security Protection, Federal and Commercial Security, Fire and Emergency Services, Base Operations Support and Training, Facilities Maintenance, and Fleet Maintenance and Construction Services.