Excellent news for Mr. Perl and company. It will be interesting to watch how this company performs on the NASDAQ. –Matt
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Royal Marine Damian Perl to float US security firm for £100m
A former Royal Marine is set to secure an estimated £100m from a planned flotation of Global Defense Technology & Systems, the American arm of his private security firm, on a stock exchange in New York.
By Louise Armitstead, Chief City Correspondent14 Nov 2009
Damian Perl, whose London-based firm Global Strategies Group has boomed on the back of some of the biggest security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, has started a shareholder roadshow ahead of listing his American division, Global Defense Technology & Systems next week.
The division, which sources say is aiming to raise over $200m, will be listed on Nasdaq. It is being marketed as a rare opportunity for investors to share in America’s burgeoning defence and homeland security expenditure. A spokesperson for the company said they could not comment during the official “quiet period” ahead of the listing.
Mr Perl, who says he trained with both American and British special forces, controls the division and is set to be the main beneficiary at the culmination of a decade of building a security empire.
His original firm, Global Risk Strategies, was founded in 1998. According to his own marketing material, he has grown it from a “small office in south London” into “one of the world’s leading providers of defence and security” operating in 20 countries and working for big corporates and governments.
He is now considered one of the most well-connected personal security executives.
The newly listed firm will be run by John Hillen, a former assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs who was said to be one of Condoleezza Rice’s closest advisers. Another director is John Devine, formerly the senior CIA representative in Britain.
Mr Perl, who is thought to have houses in London, Lake Como and New York, built Global by landing some of the most lucrative contracts in the war zone in the Middle East. He ran the security at Baghdad Airport between 2003 and 2008; helped to introduce the new currency into Afghanistan; and organised convoy protection in Northern Iraq for several years.
The company has also provided the security for Mozambique’s border control, a new infrastructure programme in Liberia and numerous contracts with multinational oil and engineering companies.
Private security firms, many of which have grown on the back of outsourcing from British and American armed forces, have a mixed track record as public companies.
Armor Group, chaired by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, floated in London in December 2004 with a market value of £65m. Although initially successful, it was considered to be too vulnerable to cuts in Government defence spending. The company was bought last year by G4S, formerly Group 4 at 80p per share, down from a peak of 263p in 2005.
Story here.