ArmorGroup
British company providing private security
ArmorGroup International was a British company which provided private security services. It was founded in 1981 and was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 6 June 2008 (it was acquired by G4S plc in April 2008).
ArmorGroup provides protective security services, risk management consultancy, security training and mine action services. It has 38 offices in 27 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria and Sudan.
It is a founder and full member of the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) and the Private Security Company Association of Iraq (PSCAI).
History
ArmorGroup began operations in 1981 as Defence Systems Limited (DSL), a company founded "to provide protective security services principally to multinational oil and gas companies." The publicly traded Armor Holdings, Inc., a business principally involved in the manufacture of armored vehicles and law enforcement equipment, acquired DSL in 1997. Some of the current senior management team carried out a Management Buyout of the company in November 2003, backed by Granville Baird Capital Partners and Barclays Bank. ArmorGroup was listed on the main list of the London Stock Exchange in December 2004.
ArmorGroup first entered Iraq under contract with the Bechtel Corporation in May 2003. ArmorGroup is now one of the very few private security companies which is legally registered and licensed to operate by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Trade.
The public source identifies “ArmorGroup” as british company providing private security. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around ArmorGroup, British and company.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q647457. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 2008, 1997 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “ArmorGroup” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.