Aussies swoop in to grow their NZ footprint in security, fire protection services
Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Australians have swooped in to buy the remaining assets of multibillion-dollar American-Irish multinational conglomerate Johnson Controls in New Zealand, with a purchase of Tyco NZ and Red Wolf Security.
ASX-listed Intelligent Monitoring Group (IMG) has purchased Bluesky Holdco, Johnson’s vehicle housing Tyco NZ, which owns the commercial trading brand of Wormald, a name commonly found on fire extinguishers, technician uniforms, service vehicles, and building compliance certifications across New Zealand.
Bluesky Holdco also owned Wellington-based Red Wolf. The purchase of both businesses was made for $45 million and sees IMG New Zealand’s operations now more comprehensively span the country, employing more than 500 people.
ASX-listed IMG already had a footprint in New Zealand, after acquiring the ADT security business from Johnson Controls in August 2023 for $21.24m. Johnson Controls became involved in New Zealand when it merged with Tyco International in 2016, absorbing both the global ADT brand and the Australasian fire operations of Wormald/Tyco NZ.
Read more:
Managing director Dennison Hambling, a Kiwi living in Australia who has spent his career in “the middle of the Tasman” commuting between the countries, said the transaction would enhance IMG’s scale and customer reach in New Zealand, while also providing a strong platform to support future organic growth initiatives.
It also provides another step in building IMG into a “serious industrial company with significant profitability, a strong balance sheet and material growth prospects across Australasia”, he said.
The acquisition would add $82.6m to IMG’s revenue line, according to the last published revenue figures for Bluesky Holdco Limited.
Wormald, which traces its history back 130 years and installed its first fire system in Auckland back in 1899, provides fire suppression systems servicing to about a quarter of all commercial buildings in New Zealand.
Red Wolf designs, deploys, and maintains high-end electronic perimeter control systems for enterprise, infrastructure, and government facilities. Chubb is its main local competitor and others were also fighting for market share, including Advanced Security Group and Recon.
While in New Zealand ADT operates alongside sister brands Wormald (Tyco NZ) and Red Wolf, allowing the cross-selling of enterprise building compliance, large-scale fire services, and high-level government surveillance to its customers, ADT in Australia is a standalone specialised security giant, focuses on traditional electronic security.
ADT is seen as a big security business in Australia, Hambling said, but it competes in an industry that employs 280,000 registered security workers - compared to just 60,000 police - so “even though ADT may seem large, it's actually still very small”.
Hambling said security technology had developed to a point where it could provide perimeter protection for a home or business, at almost to police level.
Cameras on a property perimeter were monitored live in a control room and suspicious activity was coordinated with police. The technology cost about three times the price of a home security system, “but relative to the cost of a full-time security guard sitting at your gate, it's very cheap”, he said.
“We really do believe that at our scale we can reduce crime rates in the markets we operate.”