G4S plc, the world’s leading international security solutions group, announced May 7 it completed its approximately $85 million acquisition of ArmorGroup International plc.
“ArmorGroup is highly complementary to our existing operations and we believe that the acquisition is an important and logical step in delivering our strategy for accelerated growth and development. ArmorGroup’s experience in providing protective security and other related services, its international presence and strong customer relationships means that it is a natural fit with our existing business,” Nick Buckles, G4S CEO, said in a statement. “We are excited about the enhanced growth prospects that will flow from the combination of the two businesses and will now concentrate on integrating ArmorGroup into the Group.”
London-based ArmorGroup is a leading provider of defensive and protective security services to national governments to include Iraq and Afghanistan, multinational corporations and international peace and security agencies operating in hazardous environments. It has approximately 8,500 employees and 38 offices in 27 countries.
ArmorGroup International plc evolved out of Defence Systems Limited (DSL), a company formed in 1981 to provide protective security services principally to multinational oil and gas companies, the company said in a fact sheet on its web site. DSL was acquired by the former Armor Holdings Inc. in 1997. Armor Holdings’ focus on its core business of manufacturing armored vehicles and law enforcement equipment became increasingly divergent from ArmorGroup’s activities and so it looked to divest the business. The U.S. Armor Holdings armored vehicle business was bought in 2007 by BAE Systems (Defense Daily, May 8, 2007).
The G4S acquisition is an important step in the delivery of the G4S’s recently announced strategy for accelerated growth and development based around a greater focus on long- term outsourced contracts.
The implementation of this strategy will see G4S acquire expertise in a number of key areas, with the acquisition of ArmorGroup fitting the strategy in areas such as: further expanding G4S’s exposure to developing markets and providing an opportunity to share best practice across a highly specialized international workforce in these high growth, high margin markets.
The acquisition will enable G4S to widen and deepen its customer relationships, particularly with governments and their intermediaries around the world.
ArmorGroup will further expand G4S’s geographic footprint. G4S already has operations in over 110 countries but the acquisition adds new markets including Afghanistan, Sudan, Algeria, and Rwanda.
ArmorGroup has expertise in key niche service areas such as mine clearance and disposal, risk management, kidnap for ransom and extortion services and training services for the military, law enforcement and government agencies. G4S believes there are significant opportunities to develop these specialist services further and sell them to the group’s international customer base.
G4S is the largest employer quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has a secondary stock exchange listing in Copenhagen. G4S has operations in over 110 countries and over 530,000 employees.