First Security sold to overseas operator

First Security Guard Services Ltd, New Zealand's third-largest security company, has been sold to the Denmark-based international group, ISS Facilities Services Ltd.

First Security employs more than 300 staff in Auckland and Wellington.

Its clients include embassies, port operators and Fonterra.

The sale price was not disclosed but the company has annual revenue of about $15 million.

Ross Johnson, a founder, said the new owners had been around for 100 years so they brought experience and an international perspective to the business.

"While I will continue to have an association with company, this sale enables me to proceed with the development of a range of new, more specialised, security-related enterprises," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson is developing what he said was New Zealand's first special-purpose private security alarm monitoring and response management centre. The first major client for the new business was First Security.

- NZPA