-In May 2008 Topsgrup acquired a 51 percent controlling interest in UK-based Shield Guarding, a $121 million security services provider. The company is now raising money to buy out the remaining 49 percent in Shield Guarding and possibly acquire newer companies. “We have signed a memorandum of understanding with a $300 million US security company for acquiring them. After that we want to get into the Middle East, Africa and some parts of Asia as well,” says Nanda.
-Neems to agree, relating a recent incident when the CEO of the American company he planned to acquire told him, “Rahul if the deal happens, please don’t say an Indian company has acquired us.”
“I understood where he came from,” he adds. “Eighty-five percent of Americans don’t have passports and think America is the world. For them India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan are all in the same breath.”
–Holding on to local brands is something even the big players have often done, like G4S with Wackenhut and Securitas with Pinkerton’s in the US. But being a hands-off investor might be a risky strategy, all the more so because the companies Topsgrup acquires outside India might in many cases be significantly bigger than itself.
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What I have done up top, is to cut out the key portions of this article that really stood out for me. I haven’t a clue who Topsgrup plans on buying out, but whomever it is, stand by and I wish you well. I have worked for companies that were bought out while I was employed there, and it is always a little unnerving. Topsgrup is at least trying to maintain some stability with it’s purchases by keeping the key figure heads in place.
Like I mentioned before with Terraforce, I am kind of out of the loop with the Indian security market, and I really don’t know much about them. But management and leadership issues are a universal theme, and I could care less what country you are from, you are either universally accepted as a performer or you are not.
If Topsgrup is a student of the industry, they will learn from the Kabul Fiasco and know that they must care about what is going on with the contracts of their newly acquired companies. Get some shared reality, and make sure your ‘new’ employees and contractors are actually getting taken care of. Or that your leaders are only doing good things for the company, and not destroying a company with the poor management of people and contracts.
Basic stuff really, but given what had happened with AGNA and their relationship (or lack there of) with Wackenhut, I am pretty skeptical of any company that calls itself organized or compassionate about employees/contractors. Actions speak louder than words Jack.
If any readers have some inside scoop, please feel free to speak up. I would be very curious to know who this US company is? Or if you are with Shield, let us know how that is going. The other angle on this, is it could all be hot air. Please note that Topsgrup was talking about purchasing this ‘mystery US company’ May of last year. What gives? –Matt
Topsgrup Website here.
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Elvis Has Left Town
Diwan Rahul Nanda has spent the last 15 years building Topsgrup into India’s second largest private security provider. Now he is staking it all to become a global player
by Rohin Dharmakumar | Oct 27, 2009
The Man: Diwan Rahul Nanda, 37, Chairman
The Company: Topsgrup. With close to 85,000 employees and Rs. 867 crore in revenue, it is the second largest security services provider in India.
His Goal: Create a multinational security behemoth from India by acquiring other security companies around the globe.
The Risks: Acceptance of an Indian company in Western markets will be a challenge, especially as private security companies there run jails, man borders and guard cities. Nanda will have to battle perceptions about Indian companies being synonymous with cost cutting and lowered standards for training.
Around 1.15 p.m. on October 7, an auto-rickshaw pulls up outside Gate 2 of Hewlett-Packard’s campus in Bangalore’s Electronic City suburb. The lone passenger in the auto-rickshaw, a young man of average build, pays off the driver and hurriedly walks through the campus gates along with a group of other employees. He is carrying a shoulder bag.
Diwan Rahul Nanda, Chairman, Topsgroup
When one of the security guards asks him for his identity card, he tells him that it is inside his pocket. He is lying, for HP had sacked him over three years ago. Since then he had found it impossible to find another stable job in India’s IT capital. Worse, his wife had left him a year back, taking their daughter with her.
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