Europe Deal for Harrison Digicom
Costa Mesa-based Harrison Digicom Inc. said Tuesday it has taken a 50% stake in an Estonia security company in an effort to establish a beachhead in Eastern Europe.
The acquisition of half of AS Claudia Turvasusteemid for 1.2 million Harrison shares was valued at $1.05 million at the stock’s closing price of 87.5 cents a share Tuesday.
Claudia last year had sales of $3 million, Harrison said, but was not turning a profit. The company, which deals in all lines of security, from high-tech systems to security police and executive protection, was throttled by high-interest lease packages that Harrison would be able to replace, said John Bush, Harrison’s president and chief executive.
In the long term, Harrison plans to offer wireless communication services for the transportation industry to Baltic nations, a market that Bush estimated would be at least $300 million in the next five years.
In the short term, Harrison will be in the security services business.
“As we move into other countries like Cambodia and others where we will have fairly large investments, this gives us our own security company to overlay,” Bush said. “We will have the whole gamut of whatever we need in each nation to make sure that our investments are fairly secure in each nation.”
In addition to a cellular telephone company in Cambodia, Harrison has an electronic equipment manufacturing company in Vietnam.
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