CSG closes year with three fold-in acquisitions

TULSA, Okla.—Central Security Group closed 2012 with three fold-in acquisitions that have expanded the company's presence in Oklahoma, Arkansas and California.

CSG acquired Western Home Security of Orange, Calif., in late November, then added Apex Alarms/Relay Systems Corp. of Little Rock, Ark., and CMC of Oklahoma City in the last two weeks of December, said Glenn Albers, vice president of dealer operations for CSG.

“All three had a very high percentage of residential customers [85 to 90 percent] and fit nicely with our existing customer locations and our dealer/service provider network,” he told Security Systems News.

Albers declined to disclose the number of accounts or RMR involved, but said “it's a pretty substantial group of acquisitions for us. It's comparable to what we've talked about in the past.”

CSG acquired Lakeshore Alarm Service of Conroe, Texas, last June and SafeLink Security of Kansas City, Kan., last February. Each deal brought CSG more than 1,000 accounts.

Albers said the Apex/Relay deal involved an owner who operated the two companies in tandem and was ready to retire.

“Relay was more focused on the commercial side of things and it was a lot smaller,” Albers said. “The majority of the customers were with Apex. They pretty much covered the entire state, so that was nice for us. We had a decent customer base there already, but the Apex deal was very helpful as far as increasing the number in Arkansas.”

The CMC acquisition also involved an owner looking to retire, Albers said, and it had the advantage of being right in the neighborhood for Tulsa-based CSG.

“It's in Oklahoma City, so that's a branch location for us,” he said. “That's like a slam dunk. We've already got our branch personnel there.”

Albers said the Western Home deal came with a bit of star power: Many of the residences in that company's Southern California footprint are homes of the rich and famous.

“We had to wait to be able to call some of those customers to talk to them because those [accounts] are seasonal homes,” he said. “A lot of athletes from New York, for instance, were going out to California for Thanksgiving or Christmas. That was the first time we were able to talk to them [about their new service provider]. We always also send a letter out to let them know.”

As for what is in the pipeline for 2013, Albers said CSG is working on a couple of “good-sized” deals in its existing footprint.