Securicor Plc may have amalgamated its two businesses earlier this year (CI No 2,928), but not all areas of the business are growing and profit margins are still a problem. The security, distribution, communications and business services company saw profits up just 8% at 107m pounds on revenue that rose 22% to 1.25bn pounds. Profits in the security division were down, especially in the UK, but the distribution business fared far better with pre-tax profits up 57% at 21m pounds. The communications division turned in losses of 4.5m pounds this time against a prift last time of 2.6m pounds. The company says this was due to the shift in its Cellular Services customer base towards consumer subscribers, which have a higher bad debt profile. Securicor Radiocoms has completed a merger with US company Intek Diversified Corp, in which it owns 64%. Radiocoms results were down on last year due to a drop in sales, it says. In April, the company bought Securicor Dopra, a UK systems integrator in the emergency service and utility markets, and the company has apparently made a good profit contribution since April. Securicor Datatrak, which tracks vehicle movements, moved close to break even in the year in the UK, and has commissioned four overseas networks. Securicor 3net acquired the remaining 49% of the former Networks Dynamics Ltd and moved its main operations to Australia from New Zealand. Securicor Telesciences, the New Jersey supplier of billing data and traffic managment services to telephone companies seems to have done the best of the bunch with another very good year. Although Securicor has been trying to sell its 40% stake in mobile phone operator Cellnet, its share of the company’s profit rose to 77m pounds from 71m pounds. Chairman Sir Neil Macfarlane said the company is concentrating on improvement to profit margins, while looking for a return on capital of at least 20%. He said the new trading year has started well, with the economy looking more buoyant. In spite of the mixed performance, the company is recommending a final dividend up 18.5% to 1.2 pence, making a total increase for the year of 17% to 1.6 pence.
