Sweden’s Securitas (STO: SECU-B), the world’s second-biggest security services company, posted on Tuesday a slightly smaller rise than expected in fourth-quarter core profit and organic sales growth that beat consensus.
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Operating profit before amortization grew to 1.13 billion crowns ($134 million) from a year-ago 1.02 billion, against a mean forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts for 1.16 billion.
“The increased need for security services due to terrorism alerts and the refugee situation has impacted organic sales growth in primarily France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden,” the group said in its earnings report.
Securitas said organic sales growth accelerated to 7% against a forecast 5%, on the back of good U.S. sales momentum, higher security needs in Europe and positive development in Spain and Latin America.
In North America, Securitas reported sales of 31.1 billion kronor ($3.7 billion) in 2015, a rise of 24%, which exceeded market expectations.
Securitas, which trails G4S in size, said it expected to grow security solutions and technology sales at a high pace in the coming years.
In addition, the company said the acquisition of the commercial contracts and operational assets of Diebold’s electronic security business in North America “is an important step on this journey and enables us to offer completely integrated security solutions to our customers in North America.” The acquisition was finalized on Feb. 1.
