IN Groupe Acquires Secure Components Business

IN Groupe, global specialist in identities and digital services, has signed an agreement with UK-based Portals, supplier of security features and paper, for the sale of Portals’ security components business in Bollate, Italy.

Portals acquired the security components business – comprising threads, diffractive patches and stripes for banknotes and passports – from Fedrigoni, the Italian speciality paper, packing and label company, in late 2021. At the time, Portals had no in-house security feature capability or portfolio of its own, while Fedrigoni was progressively moving out of the security market. Hence the description of the acquisition and merger as a ‘match made in heaven’.

However, eight months later, Portals’ supply agreement with its main customer (and former owner), De La Rue, was terminated. That, combined with rising energy and material costs in an increasingly competitive marketplace, led Portals to conclude that production at its Overton Mill was no longer viable, and it has since exited the banknote paper market.

It continues to produce cylinder mould-made paper for passports and secure documents at its Bathford Mill, but there was a question mark over the future of the security features business, which the sale to IN Groupe has now answered.

IN Groupe (formerly known as Imprimerie Nationale) is owned by the French government and specialises in identity and secured digital services, serving more than 130 countries in the world. In addition to its solutions for legal and professional identity security, IN Groupe provides security components for identities and banknotes through its subsidiaries SURYS (optical components), which it acquired in 2019, and SPS (electronic components).

The acquisition of Portals’ security components business is part of the implementation of IN Groupe’s Digital Odyssey 2025 Plan. The transaction is expected to complete during the first half of 2023, subject to customary approvals.