The Sweden-based multi-national security contractor Securitas continued to show resilience in the face of the corona pandemic, says the firm in its financial results for 2020.
Magnus Ahlqvist, President and CEO said: “While we continue to face high-level of uncertainty related to the corona pandemic at the beginning of 2021, we enter the year stronger and more focused and with a clear agenda for pursuing the next steps of our transformation.”
While the slump in airport security business remains ‘significant’ for the company, mainly in its Security Services Europe regional arm (which did less well financially than the North American and Latin American arms), the firm has seen extra sales in some other types of work, as customers respond to the pandemic, it said.
In Europe, the client retention rate remained at 90 per cent in 2020 as for 2019.
Globally, organic sales growth for the year was zero, and the operating margin was down in 2020 to 4.5 per cent compared with 5.2pc the year before. Sales were down for the year, and for the final quarter of the year, compared with 2019; the company pointed particularly to lower sales in installations.
The firm began a ‘restructuring’ last year to save money, which the firm in its results says will largely depend on government grants and the performance of the airport security business.
A ‘business transformation’ in North America and the firm’s global IT began in 2019 and is progressing well and is expected to be finalised according to plan by the end of 2021. “We are now taking the next major step by launching a business transformation program in our two other segments – Europe and Ibero-America.” For some years the company has stressed a move from manned guarding to higher-margin tech ‘solutions’, to ‘enhance the value proposition to our clients’, and to improve margins.
As for acquisitions in 2020, the firm, which operates in 56 countries, acquired electronic security companies in eight ‘focus markets’; in December it announced the acquisition of the FE Moran business in the United States. Securitas said that integration of five electronic security companies acquired from Stanley (in Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Singapore and India) is progressing well.
Ahlqvist added: “We have decided to leave 11 smaller countries where we deem the current and future business opportunities to be limited. We have by now already exited or are close to exiting from nine countries [Estonia, Egypt, Greece, Latvia, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Slovenia and Sri Lanka] and expect this to be finalised by mid 2021. While we continue to face high-level of uncertainty related to the corona pandemic at the beginning of 2021, we enter the year stronger and more focused and with a clear agenda for pursuing the next steps of our transformation.”
The firm’s next financial information is due on May 5; the interim report for January to March.
