Securitas AB Full Year Report January–December 2008

* To compare the dividend of 2.90 SEK with previous year’s dividend of 3.10 SEK, this year’s proposed dividend from Loomis AB must be considered.

COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
The shift in focus within Securitas from an acquisition-driven expansion to a focus on organic growth and profitability, has proved to be the right way forward in light of the present worldwide recession and is also reflected in the 2008 results. We intend to continue along this route and to be selective with respect to acquisitions, although we will exploit acquisition opportunities as they occur.

The organic sales growth in Security Services North America in 2008 was 3 percent, which is in line with the security market growth. However, the organic sales growth in the fourth quarter slowed down to 1 percent as a consequence of a reduction in new sales and some customers requesting reductions in size of existing contracts. The organic sales growth 2008 in Security Services Europe is also in line with the European security market growth which is in the 7 percent range. In Europe certain ¬customer segments, primarily aviation, construction and retail, have experienced a decline in the fourth ¬quarter, but the more important factor determining our organic sales growth in Europe is our strategy to ¬prioritize profitability over volume. This strategic choice is supported by the implementation of a higher degree of specialization in operations, sharing of knowledge, best practices and by further investments in the development of security expertise and security solutions. In all business segments the price increases have been approximately on par with wage cost development during 2008.

The operating margin in the Group improved compared to last year. In Security Services North America the consistent and systematic work, primarily with management of the contract portfolio paid off by improving operating margins in 2008 by 5.7 percent compared to 5.2 percent in 2007. The fourth quarter was also positively impacted by the final outcome of mainly wage-related ¬accruals during the year. In Security Services Europe the operating margin remained basically flat at 5.7 percent for 2008. The operations acquired in Germany, consolidated as of June 30, 2008, ¬negatively impacted the operating margin during the second half of the year as expected. Aviation, part of ¬Security Services Europe, showed a positive trend and contributed to maintaining the operating margin in Securitas European guarding operation.

In Mobile and Monitoring, the organic sales growth continued to improve compared to the previous year. The operating margin improved in the second half of the year, while the first six months were burdened by the investments to build a larger sales organization and open up new mobile routes.

Loomis was, as planned, distributed to the shareholders in Securitas and listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm on December 9, 2008.

Alf Göransson
President and Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Alf Göransson, President and CEO, +46 10 470 3000
Gisela Lindstrand, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, +46 10 470 3011
Micaela Sjökvist, Head of Investor Relations, +46 10 470 3013


INFORMATION MEETING
An information meeting will be held on February 16, 2009, at 9.00 a.m. CET.
Please note! New timetable. The information meeting will take place at Securitas’ head office, Lindhagensplan 70, Stockholm.

To follow the information meeting via telephone (and participate in Q&A session), please register via the link https://eventreg1.conferencing.com/webportal3/reg.html?Acc=589833&Conf=164301
and follow instructions, or call +44 (0)20 7162 0077 or +46 (0) 8 505 201 10.

The meeting will be webcasted at www.securitas.com/webcasts

A recorded version of the web cast will be available on www.securitas.com/webcasts after the information meeting and a telephone recorded version of the information meeting will be available until midnight on March 2 on: +44 (0)20 7031 4064 and +46 (0)8 505 203 33, access code: 825594.


Securitas AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 8.00 a.m. (CET) on Monday, February 16, 2009.

Available documents

• wkr0003.pdf (441 kb)