Alarm Monitoring Services
Monitoring companies and central stations watch alarm signals around the clock and dispatch when something happens. Whether the base is wholesale accounts monitored for other dealers or retail accounts billed directly, the revenue is recurring and the operation runs every hour of the year. Victor advises central station owners on sales and acquisitions, and helps buyers judge the quality of both the account base and the operation behind it.
About Alarm Monitoring Services
A central station is valued on its recurring revenue and on how efficiently it runs, since the cost of monitoring one more account is small once the operation is staffed and certified. Buyers look at the size and stability of the account base, the split between wholesale and retail revenue, attrition, UL 827 listing and redundancy, signal-handling automation, and operator capacity and turnover. Larger stations with strong automation are often valued on earnings rather than a flat revenue multiple, because the margin on each added account is high. Victor helps owners show the operation in its best honest light, and helps buyers separate a well-run station from one that has been underinvested.
Valued on a multiple of RMR, with larger, automated stations often priced on EBITDA.
Selected transactions
Active Watch Security
Harding represented Active Watch Security, a British Columbia video monitoring station with remote operations in Albania, in its sale to A.P.I. Alarms Ltd. of Toronto.
Surveillance Plus
Harding advised Armstrong's Communications of Chipman, New Brunswick, on its purchase of the wholesale monitoring and hardware operations of Montreal's Surveillance Plus.
Montreal Internet Service Provider
Harding advised SMS Monitoring on its purchase of a Montreal internet service provider in the spring of 2015.
Priority Alarms
Harding advised the owner of Priority Alarms in Winnipeg on the sale of its monitored accounts to Securtek Monitoring of Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Maximum Monitoring
Harding represented Maximum Security, a ULC-listed monitoring station in Aurora, Ontario, in its 2010 sale to SecurTek Monitoring of Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Consolidated Monitoring
Harding advised the owner of Consolidated Monitoring, an Edmonton-area monitoring station, on its sale to Armstrong Communication of New Brunswick as the buyer expanded into western Canada.