City Link taken over
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• Express courier company City Link Transport has been taken over by a London security, industrial cleaning and services group.
Securiguard has paid an initial £2.2 million as well as 1.4 million of its shares for the parcels firm. A further sum, linked to City Link's profits over the next two years, will also be paid.
City Link operates a nationwide service through a network of 15 of its own sites and 32 franchised depots. It em ploys 80 office staff and some 290 drivers and messengers with a fleet of more than 270 vans and 170 motorcycles. Last year it made pre-tax profits of £1 million.
Securiguard chairman Alan Baldwin says City Link will expand into Europe by the early 1990s. There are also plans to double the number of depots in the UK and introduce hub centres within the next four years.
He says: "Taking into account our purchase price and expansion plans we will be spending more than 220 million on City Link."
Securiguard owns two express parcel companies, CTS Courier in Hertfordshire and Despatch Services in London. Baldwin says: "These companies will be encouraged to take on the City Link identity."
City Link operates a major nationwide delivery contract, worth around 24.6 million a year, which expires in March. Baldwin says that City Link has already put in a bid for this contract.