Evergreen, new Armourguard owner, wins $80M government security contract

Evergreen International NZ has won an $80 million contract to supply security services to the Ministry of Social Development, just six months after the private equity-owned firm acquired the Armourguard Security business in New Zealand for $1.

The national two year plus two year contract includes provision of security guards, monitoring of security and fire alarms in ministry offices and Child Youth and Family homes, and support for monitoring systems.

Evergreen, which is owned by New York-based Evergreen Capital, acquired the Armourguard business from NYSE-listed Tyco last year. The value of the transaction was given as $1 according to a note in the accounts of Sensormatic New Zealand, the immediate owner of Tyco New Zealand. The note didn't say whether there was a debt component to the transaction.

The firm, which had 1,500 employees, takes over as national provider for services that were previously supplied by a number of companies, a spokeswoman for the ministry said. She declined to give details of the contract, including whether any cost savings were achieved.

According to the request for proposal documents released via the government's GETS tender website, the ministry currently employs about 162 guards at 144 Work & Income sites. The RFP was originally put out in early 2013 with a view to starting in July of that year.

The contract also requires security guards to be dispatched with CYF employees in family homes, transition sites and in transit and to help in delivering "trespass notices and warning letters to clients". They also sit in on some family group conferences. Monitoring services include bedroom, intruder detection and fire alarm systems in about 80 CYF family and supervised group homes.

(BusinessDesk)