APi Group is making four acquisitions worth $300 million that will extend its reach in both the U.S. and Europe.
One of Minnesota's newest public companies making four acquisitions worth $300M
New Brighton-based safety service company, recently gone public, eyes more acquisitions in 2021.
October 6, 2020 at 1:58AM
The largest purchase is the SK FireSafety Group, a Netherlands-based company that provides fire and life safety services to a variety of industries in northern Europe.
New Brighton-based APi Group provides safety, specialty and industrial services through 40 different businesses that have more than 200 locations, mostly in North America.
The acquisition of SK FireSafety adds a complementary business to APi and establishes an operational base for further expansion in Europe. Since 2011, SK FireSafety has made 25 acquisitions of its own to build its presence in northern and western Europe.
"These acquisitions help expand our geographical reach in the important U.S. market and establish a beach head for expansion on the continent in Europe," said APi's president and chief executive, Russ Becker, in a news release.
SK FireSafety Group operates in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. It has annual revenue of about $146 million and about 650 employees. SK FireSafety Group had been owned by a Paris-based private-equity group, APAX Partners, since 2014.
The three other companies being acquired are two safety-service companies, in Georgia and Massachusetts, and a specialty-services company in Wisconsin.
Names of those companies were not disclosed, and those three deals are expected to close by the end of the year.
The four new companies have healthy profit margins, APi said, and combined are expected to contribute nearly $200 million to APi's annual revenue in 2021.
Analysts covering APi Group expect the company to reach annual revenue of $3.5 billion this year.
APi Group last year was acquired by a "blank check" investment company for $2.9 billion and in April its shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The deal gave the company more ability to make acquisitions and in an investor presentation earlier this summer APi said it would seek opportunistic investments that added to its bottom line.
The company said in its news release that it is paying for its recent acquisitions with available cash on hand and indicated more deals are likely.
"Our pipeline of incremental M&A opportunities is robust, and we expect to continue to explore opportunistic acquisitions as we move through the balance of the year and into 2021," Becker said.
The company said it would discuss its acquisitions in more detail at a third-quarter earnings conference call scheduled for Nov. 11.
Shares of APi closed at $14.85 per share, up 4% in trading Monday. Share are up more than 40% this year.
Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926
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