Mumbai: Swedish security services firm Securitas AB will acquire a 49 per cent stake in Indian company Walsons for $17 million (107 million Swedish crowns) as part of its strategy to grow in Asia.

"The Indian security services market is estimated to be worth about 3,000 million crowns and is expected to grow by at least 20 per cent annually in the coming five years," Securitas said in a statement.

Walsons is the fourth largest Indian security services company with annual sales of 76 million crowns, the statement added.

Securitas, the world''''s biggest provider of security guards, meanwhile, shocked the market with worse than expected third-quarter profits in the wake of an ongoing accounting investigation at its UK cash handler Loomis.

Securitas'''' security services unit in Europe, its largest business, saw a slight fall in operating margin. The decline was due to a repayment last year of pension premiums. Margin at the North American unit rose slightly as a strategy to focus on higher-margin business takes hold. The margin in other units fell.

Securitas also reported a sharp drop in third-quarter net profit as its operating margin fell due to an impairment charge and problems at its Loomis cash-handling unit.

The company posted a net profit of 94.4 million Swedish kronor ($15 million), compared with SEK502 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Sales from continuing operations rose 4.2 per cent to SEK16 billion from SEK15.4 billion, while operating profit before amortisation from continuing operations fell to SEK831 million from SEK957 million.

Securitas last year made a SEK824 million provision after it found irregularities in accounts at the banks and its own records. This was followed by a SEK206 million provision earlier this year as the company failed to follow rules on declaring some transactions.

Securitas expects negotiations and investigations related to Loomis to be finalized in the fourth quarter.