F.E. Moran has new equity partner, surpasses $1m RMR

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—After several years of searching, F.E. Moran finally found an equity partner that offers what CEO Brett Bean calls  “access to permanent capital,” something that's not common in the security industry and that will allow the systems integrator to expand into four new states in the near future.

F.E. Moran, a full service security company that is 70 percent commercial and did $33 million in revenue in 2015, reached $1 million in RMR at the end of 2015, Bean told Security Systems News. The company has offices here in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Michigan.

Amory Capital, a family investment company also based here in Champaign, in December became an equity partner of F.E. Moran. The other owners are co-founders Bean and Brian Moran. Bean declined to reveal exact terms of the deal.

“They met all of the criteria we had for an equity partner, namely access to permanent capital. Most PE firms will invest in a company for three- to five years at the most and then there's a transaction … a recapitalization or you have to find a new partner,” Bean said.

“Armory has the flexibility to stay in the business as long as we need or want them in the business,” he said.

With new capital in hand, F.E. Moran has been busy. Earlier this week the systems integrator announced the acquisition of Sentinel Security in Indianapolis. The deal brings 2,500 new accounts, 65 percent of which are commercial and a handful of employees. Former owner Bruce Chandler will officially retire after a transition period, although he will likely continue to do some sales work for F.E. Moran in the future.

The newly acquired accounts will move to F.E. Moran's Five Diamond, UL-listed central station and new employees will move to F.E. Moran's Indianapolis office.

Bean called Indiana “a really big target for us in 2016 and beyond. We are in the process of adding eight to 10 new sales people in the market,” he said.

“We intend to become a superior player in the state of Indiana,” he said. “We're also looking to move into Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri,” Bean said.

“We anticipate adding $280,000 of RMR to our base in 2016,” Bean said.

F.E. Moran has “completed its leadership team,” Bean said, with the addition of Mark NeSmith as VP of sales and Adam Kimball as VP of operations.

“We have the people in place and now we're interested in putting the capital to work,” Bean said.