IN Groupe wants to change its size. The public company, formerly Imprimerie nationale, announced on September 19 that it had started exclusive negotiations with the French group Idemia for the acquisition of its Smart Identity division, specialised in the production of identity documents (national identity card, passport, social security card, etc.). The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Bloomberg agency cited a price of less than one billion euros.
If successful, it would be the biggest in the history of a group whose origins date back to 1640, with the creation of the Imprimerie royale at the Louvre by Louis XIII and Richelieu, and which continues to benefit from state aid. It has a monopoly on the production of passports, visas and identity cards for reasons of national security.
The €430 million in turnover generated by Idemia Smart Identity would enable IN Groupe to almost double its size and reach €1 billion in turnover. Its workforce will increase from just over 2,000 to nearly 4,000 employees worldwide, mainly in Europe. Idemia Smart Identity employs 250 people in France, out of a total of 1,700, and its two ID document manufacturing workshops are located in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. IN Groupe’s main production site is located in the north, in Flers-en-Escrébieux, near Douai.
“It is a fundamental operation”Agnès Diallo, appointed to the position of general manager of IN Groupe in July, is convinced “because it will strengthen our geographical positions in Europe, Africa and Latin America. It will also give us sufficient size to respond to the largest tenders, especially in Asia, markets in which we both move timidly.”.
Block sale
As identity documents become digitalised, the public group also intends to rely on the technological know-how of Idemia Smart Identity. Founded in 2016 following the acquisition of Morpho, a former Safran subsidiary, by Oberthur Technologies, Idemia has its roots in the smart card industry, like its French competitor Thales.
Former partner at the consulting firm McKinsey, where she worked from 2006 to 2016, before joining the Atos group, then IN Groupe in 2019, Mme Diallo is thus continuing the acquisition policy initiated by his predecessor, Didier Trutt, who took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors in July. In ten years, under his leadership, the public group had made more than half a dozen acquisitions, always with the support of its shareholder, which had already enabled it to double its turnover between 2015 and 2020.
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