SoftBank in early talks to buy US security firm Allied Universal, reports say

SoftBank Group is in early-stage talks to buy Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the United States, according to reports by Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, each citing people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg first reported the talks on Friday (US time). It said a deal could give the privately held company an equity value of as much as $US18 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that the talks are at an early stage and that a deal is far from certain. Allied is backed by the buyout firm Warburg Pincus and the Canadian pension fund La Caisse. Bloomberg said it also has about $12 billion of publicly traded debt.

The Financial Times described Allied as the world’s largest private security group and the owner of Britain’s G4S.

Allied provides security staff for businesses, venues and major events and has a growing presence in data centres, Reuters reported, citing a source. According to that source, SoftBank would eventually look to replace some staff with robots for certain security tasks, although deploying humanoid security workers is likely to take longer. Deliberations are preliminary and no final decisions have been made, including on price, the reports said.

SoftBank declined to comment, and Allied Universal did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The talks follow SoftBank’s agreement last year to buy the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB for $5.4 billion.