The next milestone came three years later, when we learnt that Australia’s largest security agency, Chubb Security,
was up for sale. Its revenue was nearly four times that of ours, but we
still decided to take a chance and buy it. The size of the deal was
around $300 million. We had to sell 14% of our stake to D E Shaw,
the New York-based hedge fund, to partly fund the acquisition. In the
bargain, we became the first Indian multinational in the security
services industry.Around this time, we also diversified into
other verticals, such as housekeeping and electronic security systems.
In August 2011, we signed a joint venture with Terminix, the world
leader in pest management, to form one of India’s largest pest control
services company.Three months prior to this, we had a joint venture with Prosegur,
South America’s largest security services provider, to form one of
India’s biggest cash management services company. This was the first
strategic foreign investment in India’s cash management space. Today, we
have 72,000 employees in 104 branches, including eight offices in
Australia. Among our 3,000-odd corporate clients are industry majors
like Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and Idea Cellular. Our consolidated turnover in 2012-13 was Rs 2,743 crore and we have been growing at nearly 35% year-on-year in India.
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