France-based smart cards component maker Linxens Group has acquired Mumbai-based plastic cards manufacturer Siepmann’s Card Systems Pvt. Ltd, a person aware of the development told VCCircle.
The value of the deal is not known.
Linxens and Siepmann’s Card Systems didn’t respond to email queries from VCCircle.
Law firm Nishith Desai Associates acted as a legal adviser to Linxens for this transaction.
Incorporated in 1988, Siepmann’s Card Systems was founded by Vishwanath Bhas. The company is engaged in the designing and manufacturing of chip-based smart cards and non-chip-based identity cards.
Its customers include Indian Railways, Delhi Metro, and banks and financial institutions, according to its website.
The manufacturing facility of Siepmann’s is located at Thane with an installed capacity of 21 million per year for smart cards and 15.2 million per year for non-chip-based identity cards as on 31 March 2017, according to a report by Care Ratings.
Siepmann’s net sales stood at Rs 31.2 crore for the year through March 2017, a bit up from Rs 30.5 crore the previous year, according to VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle.
Linxens manufactures micro-connectors, RFID (radio-frequency identification) antennas and inlays for smart cards. It is also present in the LED (light-emitting diode) lighting market under the Liite brand.
France-based Linxens employs over 3,000 people worldwide. It has four research and development centres and seven manufacturing locations across Europe and Asia. Its revenue stood at 535 million euros for 2016.
In 2018, Chinese state-owned chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup had agreed to buy Linxens from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for about $2.6 billion, according to media reports.
