More VC interest

NEW YORK--Following an infusion of capital from Pegasus Capital Advisors, T&M Protection Resources chairman Robert Tucker used a sports analogy to describe his company's standing in the security market: "It gives us great depth and bench strength." T&M currently employs more than 1,000 as part of a business that offers everything from guard services to intelligence services to canine explosive detection to electronic security integration, with about 15 people dedicated to electronic security. Now, however, "absolutely one of our targets of opportunity is to buy another smaller integration company that could help us in terms of scale, size and talent, adding to the existing talented people we employ." The systems division is currently let by Paul Berger, and operates in the greater New York City area, going into southern Connecticut and northern New Jersey. T&M does not currently do alarm monitoring, but does have an active counter-measures group, Tucker said, and normally works in access control and CCTV. Pegasus chose to invest in T&M as part of its Fund IV, and manages a total of $1.8 billion overall. Tucker said "they're as excited about the security space as I am" and that it's a good sign that they've "made a decision to invest part of their fund in our industry." Pegasus, however, declined to comment on their opinion of the security space. In a statement, Rodney Cohen, co-managing partner of Pegasus, said, "T&M is the perfect centerpiece in our efforts to build a portfolio of security services companies in New York and the rest of the world." He also spoke of a "continuing security initiative." Going forward, Tucker sees good times ahead for regional companies such as his. "I think what you're going to see," he said, "is regional companies like ours really getting the attention of the traditional client of the global security services company. We can provide customized solutions, we're local, locally managed and making decisions locally, and that's beginning to matter more and more to people who have New York problems ... Security is a board-level issue today, not a procurement issue, and we're in as good a position as anyone to help you deal with it."