December 10 (SeeNews) - Danish facility services group ISS said on Monday that it has decided to divest its Romanian and Slovenian operations in order to optimize its portfolio.
Beside Romania and Slovenia, ISS plans to also withdraw from Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, the group said in a press release.
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The process of divesting countries and business units is expected to conclude during 2020.
These divestments will significantly simplify the business, reducing complexity and risk, the group said. Upon completion, the number of customers is expected to drop by half, from 125,300 to around 62,700 and the number of employees is expected to decrease by 20% - from 490,000 to around 390,000.
"[...] we must focus our capital and resource on those customers, services and geographies that can truly benefit from our future investment in processes, technology and innovation. This acceleration of our strategy will improve our offering for Key Account customers and deliver a stronger and more consistent financial performance for our shareholders," ISS group CEO Jeff Gravenhorst said.
In 2017, these planned country and business unit divestments generated a revenue of 9.685 billion Danish crowns ($1.5 billion/1.3 billion euro), meaning 12% of the group's total revenues and an operating profit before other items of 373 million Danish crowns or 8% of the group's total operating profit.
The ISS Group was founded in Copenhagen in 1901 and provides facility services such as: cleaning, catering, security, property and support services as well as facility management.
(1DKK=0.134 euro)