Irish alarm company Homesecure sells to Norwegian group for €25m

Irish alarm monitoring company Homesecure has been sold to Norwegian group Sector Alarms, which already owns PhoneWatch in this market. The sale price is believed to be €25 million.

Founded in 2014 by Colm Daly, the company has just under 20,000 customers and is understood to be growing at a rate of more than 20 per cent a year. It has 45 full-time employees and offers 24/7 monitored security in the Irish residential market.

The main beneficiary of the sale will be Homesecure's non-executive chairman Simon Murphy, who has a majority stake in the business. Mr Daly and the company's chief financial officer Darren Byrne are also shareholders, while other investors include serial entrepreneur Andrew Collins, former Ryanair executive Michael Cawley, Virgin Media chief executive Tony Hanway, and Niall Anderton, an executive with fuel group Circle K.

Gross margins

Latest accounts for Homesecure Ltd show that its revenue rose by 27 per cent to €4.85 million in 2019. The company recorded a loss for the year of just under €2 million.

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Gross margins achieved for the period grew to 72.9 per cent in 2019 from 70.4 per cent in the prior year. The company raised €759,655 in funding to service its ongoing working capital requirements, compared with €1.6 million in 2018.

It is understood that the company is now operating profitably with revenues running at a rate of €7 million annually. Homesecure is believed to have more than 700 homes waiting to be hooked up once lockdown restrictions are eased. New customers are required to sign up to a three-year contract.

Oslo base

Based in Oslo, Sector Alarms has more than 550,000 customers across Europe, with businesses in France, Finland, Spain and Sweden as well as its home market and Ireland. According to its website, its revenues exceed €240 million and the company employs more than 2,000 staff.

It already owns PhoneWatch here, which it acquired from Eir in 2013. PhoneWatch has about 100,000 homes and business customers.

Mr Daly is expected to leave the business once the deal has been formally completed. Homesecure and PhoneWatch are expected to operate as separate brands although PhoneWatch managing director Eoin Dunne will run both businesses.