Security services provider Topsgroup is looking for acquisitions worth up to Rs 1,000 crore in India and US. These acquisitions are going to be partially funded by an initial public offering (IPO) which company is planning is soon.The company is planning for the IPO to raise around Rs 300 crore in 2011-12. "The money raised through the IPO will be used to part fund the possible acquisitions, predominantly in India and the US. The additional money required for the buyouts will come from internal accruals,” as per Ramesh Iyer's statement in The Telegraph. Ramesh Iyer is managing director of Topsgrup India.
Tops Security Limited, the flagship company of Topsgrup, is the first security firm in India to get private equity funding in 2007. ICICI Venture invested Rs 115 crore for a 13.69 per cent equity stake, while Indivision (the investment arm of Future Group) increased its stake in the company to 7.08 per cent from 4.94 per cent with an additional investment of Rs 25 crore. Stock investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala owns a 10.8 per cent stake and is a director on the board.
In 2008, Topsgrup acquired a 51 per cent stake in a UK security service provider — The Shield Guarding Company — for about Rs 125 crore. In the same year, it had bought Bangalore-based Guardwell Detective Services Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount. Topsgrup had also acquired a 14.69 per cent stake in Chennai-based security systems integrator firm Adtech Systems.
