SIS reports 9.8% revenue growth in Q1FY22

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the demand for security services further.

According to a FICCI report, private security industry (PSI) is one of the largest employers in India (almost 90 lakh people, with the potential to employ 31 lakh more by 2022). These unarmed security guards are employed with about 22,000 private security agencies (PSA), and prominent players are G4S, SIS, Securitas, Peregrine, CISS, Checkmate, etc.

The demand for security services is increasing due to urbanisation, the real and perceived risks of crime, belief that public safety measures are insufficient, and growth of a middle class with assets to protect and means to pay for supplementary security measures.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the demand for security services further.

“The unfortunate Covid-19 second wave was possibly the worst crisis the country faced in decades,” Rituraj Kishore Sinha, group MD, SIS Ltd, told FE. “But it also spurred the demand for private security services as well as facility management services.”

While the stringent lockdown (during the second wave) meant that a majority of the general public didn’t have to step out of their homes, residential, commercial and public places still needed to be managed and cash needed to be moved around. “This sector (PSI) is resilient to even the worst kinds of crisis a country can face,” Sinha added.

On Wednesday, SIS reported consolidated revenue for Q1FY22 at Rs 2,379 crore (9.8% year-on-year growth). The consolidated EBITDA for Q1FY22 stood at Rs 121 crore (flat year-on-year).

SIS operates in India as well as in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. While its revenues from security solutions India business stood at Rs 881 crore in Q1FY22 (Rs 858 crore in Q1FY21 and Rs 901 crore in Q4FY21), the international business stood at Rs 1,201 crore in Q1FY22 (vis-à-vis Rs 1,020 crore in Q1FY21 and Rs 1,253 crore in Q4FY21).

Revenues of its facility management business were Rs 305 crore in Q1FY22 (Rs 293 crore in Q1FY21 and Rs 296 crore in Q4FY2).

“With the June 2021 monthly run rate of Rs 788 crore, stable and improving margins and a strong balance sheet on the back of record collections, Q1FY22 marks a solid start to FY22. We have vaccinated 1.94 lakh employees (92% of total) with the first dose and 33,000 employees (17% of total) with both doses, and are targeting 100% full vaccination by September,” Sinha added.

With 2.22 lakh frontline essential services workforce, SIS is amongst the top-5 private sector employers in India.