PE firms Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman to buy Securitas Direct for $3.26 bn

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman have teamed up to buy security products maker Sweden's Securitas Direct, in a deal that could value the Sweden-based home alarm and security service company at around €2.3 billion ($3.26 billion).

Both PE firms beat a rival bid from power tools maker Stanley Black & Decker, Carlyle Group, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Stanley Security Solutions and Apax Partner for Securitas Direct, which is owned by private-equity firm EQT Partners, Melker Schorling and its largest shareholder Investment AB Latour, which owns 7.5 per cent of the capital and 12.2 per cent of votes.

Founded in 1988 as a division of Securitas Group, Malmo, Sweden-based Securitas Direct makes high-quality security services based on a standardised range of alarm products to homes and small businesses, with markets in nine European markets.

The group, which has close to 1.3 million customers and holding more than 20 per cent of Europe's monitored alarms market, is active in ten countries, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Chile

It reported net income of SEK1.45 billion on revenues of SEK5.5 billion in 2010.

Securitas Direct demerged in 2006 from Securitas AB, the world's second-biggest security services firm and was a listed independently on the Stockholm Stock Exchange until 2008 when the company was acquired by EQT in a $1.6 billion deal.