Barcelona-based Telesincro SA, in which the Compagnie des Machines Bull SA-owned Bull Espana Group has a 72% stake, is convinced that it is set to become the leader of the emerging electronic purse Smart Card market, having become the number one company in Europe and the third worldwide in the payment terminal market. The company now has an installed base of half a million payment terminals of all kinds and plans to produce 150,000 more in 1996, 60,000 of which will read electronic purse cards. Telesincro managing director Mario Guerrero told Computerworld Espana that the firm’s success had arrived after a period of ups and downs, while the key factor had been strong investment in research and development, amounting to some 10% of sales; 44% of Telesincro’s sales currently come through exports, even to markets such as Germany and Norway where security demands are extremely high. The company is about to make inroads into the Latin American market hand in hand with Visa International Inc, where it has high hopes for electronic purse cards – Argentina, Brazil and Colombia already have pilot installations set up, and another export target is the Far East, including China and Vietnam.
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