De La Rue International Plc, the UK banknote printer which has repositioned itself as a ‘cash-to-cards’ company, has invested 10m pounds this year alone in smart card technology and sales in its card system division climbed 26.1% to 76.8m pounds in the six months to September 30. This was one of the few bright spots in a company that saw overall revenues decline by 2.2% to 370.2m pounds. The heavy development spend left the card operation showing a 4m pound operating loss for the half. De La Rue says that smart card market growth is between 30% and 35% and volumes rose by over 50%. De La Rue is keeping a finger in all the operating system pies, with strong Java platform and Multos ties, and it is now working with Microsoft on its new Windows card. In October there were rumors that Microsoft Corp (CI No 3,520) wanted to break up the company, take its smart card technology and offer the rest of its business to companies like American Banknote Corp, but whether Microsoft is sufficiently impressed to buy the company is doubtful. With mid-term net profits down from 31.6m pounds to 5.8m pounds the company is vulnerable to a takeover. Shares in the company, which stood at around 1000 pence in 1994 now stand at 176.5 pence.
