The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE


Tribune Business Reporter


nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A key Cabinet minister said yesterday that while security services was an area primarily reserved for Bahamians, the Government has seldom raised objections to Bahamians joint venturing with foreign firms to improve their offering.
 Responding to queries on whether the imminent merger of ICS Security Concepts with Jamaican-based Guardsman Group goes against this nation’s investment policy, with security services among the areas listed as being reserved for Bahamians, Khaalis Rolle said that while this was the case, the Government seldom objected to such joint ventures.
 Tribune Business revealed last week that ICS Security Concepts, the Bahamian security firm in charge of the electronic ankle bracelet monitoring system, is set to expand its footprint throughout the Caribbean via a merger with Guardsman Armoured, a subsidiary of the Guardsman Group.

Jamaican media outlets had reported that the Guardsman Group was looking to invest $5 million in its Bahamas operation, which is to be set up in six months, although no mention was ever made of ICS Security Concepts or a merger with a local firm.
 “This is an area primarily reserved for Bahamians. However, the Government seldom objects to Bahamians joint venturing with foreign firms to improve the quality of their offering,” the minister of state for investments said.

“There is an application process where all firms have the opportunity to present their case for review by the National Economic Council. We have not reviewed this application to evaluate the case being made for
the partnership. Nothing has been submitted as yet. I am sure they will approach us at some point.”

Stephen Greenslade, ICS’s chief executive, told Tribune Business last week that the company, which employs some 400 persons, was working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Guardsman Group and had been looking to expand its operations into the Caribbean.

“They are working with us. We are their partners. We are going to merge our businesses. We are going to expand, it’s a merger. We have got an MoU and we are working out certain things,” said Mr Greenslade.
 “They are a big company in Jamaica and we have a large share of the local market right now. I would say that per capita our companies are about the same size. We are looking to expand in the Caribbean with them, but ICS is already a global company.

“Based on the reputation Guardsman has developed in the Caribbean we see this as a good partnership to grow our business even more. We think it will have a great impact. We could have done it ourselves and struggled for about 10 years, but we thought this was the best move to expand our operations into the Caribbean.”
 Kenneth Benjamin, executive chairman of the Guardsman Group told Jamaican media that the company had been called to the Bahamas. “We decided to go because we were invited by some banks,” he said.

“What we provide, nobody else in the region or even North America does,” Mr Benjamin was quoted as saying. Guardsman Armoured reportedly has 550 staff and offers guarding services, armored trucks, cash-in transit as well as vehicle tracking among other services. Guardsman Armoured began as a franchise of Brinks Inc, originally Brinks Jamaica, in August 1965.
 The Ingraham administration signed a $2.7 million contract with ICS in December 2010 for electronic monitoring via ankle bracelets. Its contract expired in November and has reportedly been extended to accommodate a bidding process.