| Group 4 Securicor merger completed ahead of schedule |
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COPENHAGEN - Group 4 Securicor, the Anglo-Danish security services company said on Monday that its first-half core profits were in line with expectations and that it had managed to complete its post-merger integration earlier than anticipated.
The company was formed by the merger of Denmark's Group 4 Falck and Britain's Securicor in July 2004. Group 4 had targeted annual synergies in the region of £30 million, but has revealed that it was in line to post £35 million. The company's margins posted an increase of 0.5 percent to 5.7 percent in the first half of the year. Nick Buckles chief executive at Group 4 was optimistic that these margins would surpass expectations in the traditionally stronger second half of the year. "We have debt capacity to spend another £400m on acquisitions," said Buckles.
Group 4 has revealed that it has plans to enter international markets particularly those of Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. The company can certainly afford this since the pre-tax profits in the first six months up to June were £58.1 million, almost 20 percent above expectations. "The integration of the merging businesses has been completed significantly ahead of schedule [and] at the same, we have achieved strong organic growth," Buckles said. He added that customers were adopting a "wait and see" approach as far as the British market was concerned and hence there was stagnation in the market. Buckles remained upbeat about future prospects, "Whilst there are still some challenging conditions in some markets, the businesses are performing well and this provides the group with a solid base. We would expect the same sort of momentum to continue into the second half," he observed.
Group 4 shares rose by 1.2 percent in early trading.
Posted
on : Wed, 14 Sep 2005 06:05 GMT | General News
By : Salim Patel
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