De La Rue Plc is set to boost its smart card interests with the acquisition of Italian card maker Cellograf-Simp SpA. The London- based firm that has traditionally concentrated on bank note printing, will pay around $11.2m for the Italian company that makes debit and credit cards as well as smart cards. While smart cards only account for a small proportion of De La Rue’s business at the moment, it wants to establish itself as a major European supplier in an up and coming market. With the purchase of Cellograf, De La Rue envisages it will be able to become Italy’s premier smart card supplier by 2005. At the moment, Cellograf controls 60% of the Italian smart card market, and exports its products to Greece, Belgium and Turkey. De La Rue has been very active in the smart card space recently, clearly preparing itself for the cards anticipated boom in the not too distant future. At the end of March De La Rue announced the formation of an alliance with French electronic transaction terminals manufacturer Ingenico SA (CI No 3,379), following its purchase of Philips Electronics NV’s smart card subsidiary, Philips Cartes et Systemes SA (CI No 3,164). De La Rue’s financial performance of late has been hindered by its traditional bank note business, and the company is now describing itself as a ‘cash-to-cards’ specialist. The acquisition of Cellograf is subject to the usual approval procedures.
