Falck (Denmark)

Falck A/S
	Falck Logo
Formerly	Falck Rescue Corps
Type	Aktieselskab
ISIN	DK0010305317
Industry	Assistance, healthcare, rescue and safety services
Founded	3 October 1906;111 years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark
Founder	Sophus Falck
Headquarters	Polititorvet, Copenhagen, Denmark
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jakob Riis (President & CEO) Tor Magne Lønnum (CFO)
Services	Firefighting, EMS and Ambulance services, roadside assistance, preventive health care
Owners	Lundbeck (57.36%); KIRKBI Group (27.73%)
Divisions	Falck USA
Website	Official Website

Last updated March 31, 2019

Falck A/S is a Nordic-based organization with activities in most areas of Europe and representation on five continents.^[1] The four business areas: healthcare, assistance, safety services and emergency together make up Falck’s business. All of Falck’s activities are directed at preventing accidents and disease, at providing assistance in situations of emergency, accidents or need, and at helping people move on with their lives after illnesses or accidents. Falck has 35,000 employees in 46 countries. The company's current CEO is Jakob Riis.

An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath.

Overview

Falck rescue truck

Falck A/S provides a wide range of services within health, safety, roadside assistance and other assistance to corporate customers and private households in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Estonia. The international operation also includes activities in countries like Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Russia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

Roadside assistance and breakdown coverage are services that assist motorists, or bicyclists, whose vehicles have suffered a mechanical failure that leaves the operator stranded.

Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and is bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km² (16,573 sq mi), land area of 42,394 km² (16,368 sq mi), and the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km² (853,509 sq mi), and a population of 5.8 million.

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northwestern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula; the remote island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard are also part of the Kingdom of Norway. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land.

Falck Safety Services—formerly called Training—is a provider of rescue and safety courses, especially for staff in the offshore sector and the maritime sector. Also the chemical industry, fire services, the aviation industry and military defence units use Falck's competences and training centres for safety training for their staff. In addition, Falck is the largest private ambulance company in Europe.^{[ citation needed ]} Falck provides ambulance services to the general public in seven countries in close collaboration with the authorities. Falck also provides other services for the public sector such as patient transport, rehabilitation of patients from the public hospital sector, operation of assistive equipment centres and a number of services for the police and the road authorities.

The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state to enforce the law, to protect the lives, liberty and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their powers include the power of arrest and the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

For the year 2018 and forward, Falck management decided to refocus its business model. In December 2017, the Board of Directors decided to initiate a process to sell the Falck Safety Services division. The Board of Directors’ decision was mainly taken with the aim of streamlining the Group and focusing on key business units. It is the Management’s assessment that the divestment will be completed before year-end 2018. ^[2]

History

Falck A/S was founded in 1906 by Sophus Falck. By the year 1956 Falck was a nationwide operator with 100 rescue stations in Denmark, and the company expanded further seven years later by acquiring the shares of the Zonen rescue service, their main Danish road assistance competitor.

Sophus August Falck was a Danish pioneer in the area of fire fighting and rescue services.

In 1988 The Falck family sold Falck to Baltica, a Danish-based insurer. Falck purchased the security service division ISS Securitas from ISS in 1993, the first in a series of mergers, which later included both Group 4 Securicor and Wackenhut.

Security is freedom from, or resilience against, potential harm caused by others. Beneficiaries of security may be of persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems or any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change by its environment.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred or consolidated with other entities. As an aspect of strategic management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow or downsize, and change the nature of their business or competitive position.

The company later mergered its activities in the security field with Securicor Plc. That new company was named Group4Securicor. In connection with the merger, Falck was separated from Group 4 Falck and listed independently on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Danish media described the separation as “Falck returns to its roots”. In February 2005 Falck was delisted from the Copenhagen Stock Exchange because Nordic Capital had bought the shares of Falck. Falck has now re-entered the security field. In 2011, Nordic Capital sold its shares, making the principal shareholders The Lundbeck Foundation and KIRKBI.^[3]

Role in the privatization of Danish emergency services

In Denmark, Falck is currently in charge of 65 percent of municipality fire brigades and 85 percent of ambulance services.^[4] In 1926, the Danish government allowed municipal governments to contract with private companies to provide emergency services.

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Securicor plc was one of the United Kingdom's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004.

ISS A/S is a Facility Services company founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1901. ISS services include: cleaning services, support services, property services, catering services, security services and facility management services. The ISS Group’s revenue amounted to DKK 73.5 billion in 2018 and ISS has nearly 500,000 employees and activities in approximately 65 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America and Pacific. More than half of ISS' employees are based in emerging markets.

The Copenhagen Stock Exchange or CSE, since 2014 officially called Nasdaq Copenhagen, is an international marketplace for Danish securities, including shares, bonds, treasury bills and notes, and financial futures and options.

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References

↑ "Always there". Falck. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
↑ http://www.falck.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Annual%20reports/Falck_annual_report_2017.pdf
↑ "History". Falck. Archived from the original on 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
↑ "2009 Falck annual report" (PDF). Falck. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2010-07-06.

External links

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[1] "Always there". Falck. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2012-05-21.

[2] ttp://www.falck.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Annual%20reports/Falck_annual_report_2017.pdf

[3] "History". Falck. Archived from the original on 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2012-07-30.

[4] "2009 Falck annual report" (PDF). Falck. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2010-07-06.