Polaris expands with safety specialist buy

Danish-owned private equity firm Polaris and Falck Group have signed an agreement which will see Polaris acquire 100 percent of the shares in Falck Safety Services Holding A/S.

Polaris said on Wednesday that it would take over all safety services activities in Falck through the acquisition. Falck Safety Services currently operates in over 30 training centers in 21 countries.

According to Polaris, the divestment of Falck Safety Services is in line with Falck’s overall strategy to focus on its core business – healthcare and emergency assistance.

Partner and CFO at Polaris, Henrik Bonnerup, said: “We see good growth opportunities in the company’s markets where increasing safety demands and a higher degree of outsourcing to professional partners generate great potential.

“Safety Services’ competent employees, its unique offering to customers and the company’s strong market position form a great platform for generating growth and building an even stronger business based on world-class customer service and global operating procedures.”

The parties have agreed not to disclose the sales price, and closing is expected during September 2018.

Falck President and CEO, Jakob Riis, added: “We are focusing our business and reducing complexity to build leadership in our core business areas. We believe that Polaris can provide the focus and financial capacity needed to enhance Safety Services’ leadership.”

Following the acquisition, Torben Harring will continue as CEO of Safety Services under Polaris’ ownership.

“Polaris’ ownership strengthens Safety Services. Following the effect of the downturn in the oil and gas sector, we conducted a thorough and necessary global cost adjustment and carved out one third of our cost base.

“With the outlook to improve profitability significantly and with Polaris as a new strong owner prepared to fuel our growth, we can now fully focus on accelerating the transformation and development of our business,” said Harring.