PE firms bid on Oberthur partial sale

Greg Gille
@unquotenews
20 June 2011

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Buyout houses including PAI partners, Advent International, Bain Capital and One Equity are believed to have made offers for part of French secure technologies specialist Oberthur.

The group would be looking to divest 60% of its smart cards activities - SIM cards, chip-and-pin banking cards - as well as the entirety of its identity documents production business, according to French daily Les Echos.

The assets would be valued at around €1bn. Second-round bidders should be short-listed this week, with a view to complete the transaction before the end of the summer.

Initially a money printer, Levallois-Perret-based Oberthur later diversified into the smart cards and secure identity documents markets. This divestment would allow it to focus solely on its printing business, as its takeover offer for rival money printer De La Rue was rejected in December 2010.

Oberthur posted a €979m turnover for 2010 - its smart cards and identity documents activities accounted for 73% and 10.4% of these revenues respectively.