Finnish Industry Investment Ltd and other owners of Setec Oy (Setec) have agreed to sell Setec to a Luxembourg based company Gemplus International S.A (Gemplus), listed in Euronext Paris. Following the closing of the transaction of 30 million and 19 million Gemplus shares, Gemplus will own 100% of Setec. The share price of the Gemplus shares was 1.92 at the time of the transaction. Furthermore, pursuant to an additional purchase price mechanism, a maximum of 30 million will be paid depending on a defined order backlog at the end of 2005.
Finnish Setec is one of the leading companies in the electronic passport business and smart card and security printing technologies. Gemplus is the world's leading provider of smart card based solutions, and the acquisition of Setec complements its activities both from a business and geographical perspective. The transaction is subject to certain standard closing conditions, including regulatory clearance, and it is expected to be closed in June 2005.
"The acquisition of Setec is a good opportunity in increasing our business portfolio and obtaining new technology, while complementing our existing structure", comments Alex Mandl, President and CEO of Gemplus. "This will strengthen our strategy of delivering a range of solutions and subsystems for the Identity market and confirm our leadership across the board," Mandl continues.
"The synergies between Gemplus and Setec are significant. We welcome this as an opportunity to benefit from the size of Gemplus both in terms of worldwide presence and as the leader in its industry. This is a great opportunity for Setec to promote its technology and expertise in different geographical markets", says Pekka Eloholma, CEO of Setec.
Setec Oy develops, manufactures and delivers products that require extreme security, such as biometric and visual passports, electronic and visual ID cards, EMV cards and SIM cards for various countries. What is common in all these smart card products is their microchip, which improves the security of authentication, whether dealing with people faceto-face or online. Setec's major customers are public authorities, banks, and telecom operators. The company has operations in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Thailand. At the end of 2004, the Group's net sales totalled EUR 58.5 million and it employed 353 people. www.setec.com
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 – GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest (2004), Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5 billion smart cards. With security at its core, and 2400 patents and applications produced by its innovative R&D team, Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control. Gemplus' revenue in 2004 was 865 million Euros.
Further information:
Kimmo Viertola, Director, Finnish Industry Investment Ltd
tel: +358 9 6803 6815
Jarkko Viheriävaara, Director, Finnish Industry Investment Ltd
tel. +358 9 6803 6831