The Italian manufacturer of speciality papers and self-adhesive materials, Fedrigoni, is to sell its security printing business (assets and personnel) to the English company Portals, which specializes in the production of banknotes and security papers. About 100 employees will join the English group.
Portals, which is reporting 2019 sales of £138.5 million or ?159 million, has also agreed in a separate transaction to an option to purchase certain banknote and passport papers (as well as production machinery) from Fedrigoni's Fabriano security division. Both divestitures could take place by the end of this year.
If this option is implemented, some of the machinery and equipment used for the production of banknotes and passport papers will be sold to Portals, while the staff, the plant and some sensitive assets (such as the molding machine) will remain at Fedrigoni to develop the Art & Drawing business, which includes art papers and printing papers.
Fedrigoni's Security business, which accounts for 5% of the group's revenues, includes production lines at the Bollate plant in Milan, Italy, and a broad portfolio of papers and solutions for banknote and other security document applications.
"Portals is a well-established and growing player: our employees are in good hands!" said Fedrigoni CEO Marco Nespolo.
"As the largest supplier of security threads to the banknote industry, Fedrigoni's security business has a strong portfolio of threads and holograms with high-volume customers around the world, said Portals . Our intention is to invest in an integrated innovation strategy focused on enhanced security and sustainability for currency and passport substrate applications."
