Oberthur to increase production in Brazil
Valor Econômico
At the end of last year, the Brazilian Government determined the issue of a new identity card, the so-called Single Record for Civil Identification (RIC), which gathers several documents (ID, voter's registration and CPF - Individual Taxpayers' Registry with the Ministry of Finance) in a smart card. The substitution will be gradual, but the 150-million-card market has attracted the heavy weight players of the sector. "It will be the greatest project of digital identification in the world after India and we want to take part in it with the opening of a new plant in Brazil", says Xavier Fricout, Executive Officer of the Identification Division of Oberthur Technologies, French company that operates worldwide in that segment. The plan of the company is to grab a slice of 20% of the market in the country.
In Brazil since 2004, Oberthur has a unit in Cotia, in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, for the production of smart cards for banks and prepaid phone cards for telecommunications operators (simcards), aiming at clients such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Itaú, besides all mobile phone operators.
The new plant will be opened in the second half. The current 4 thousand square meter unit will be shut down. In its place there will be the new 7 thousand square meter facilities, including the new Division of Digital Identification. "It will be a completely new plant with the safety features required by the government agencies for a project of that type", says Fricout. The unit is already ready and it is only waiting for the certification of the client banks regarding the issue of bank smart card. Fricout came from France to present the digital identification project to the Brazilian Government. The RIC has centralized rules and procedures defined within the federal sphere. The implementation, however, will be decentralized and it will be made by the 27 Brazilian States, potential clients of Oberthur.
Worldwide, the revenue of Oberthur amounts to € 900 million. The company neither discloses how much of that amount Brazil represents, nor how much will be invested in the new unit. Only to have an idea, Gemalto, one of the rivals of Oberthur in Brazil, as well as GD Burti and Sagem Orga, invested US$ 10 million at the end of last year. The plant of Oberthur will issue the polycarbonate card, place the operating system in the chip and make the customization of the document. "Besides the RIC, we see a promising market in the segment of passports that within two years should mean 10 million documents", says the Sales Officer of Oberthur, Paula Santos. According to the President of the Brazilian subsidiary, Xavier Libret, Oberthur has 12 plants in the world. "The strategy is to concentrate the units in five major production sites: one in China, two in Europe, one in the United States and one in Latin America, precisely the Brazilian plant that will export to neighbor countries", says the Executive. Oberthur is one of the companies contracted to issue the Euro in Europe and other currencies in 47 countries, besides the issue of passports. In the segment of cards, it issues 800 million units a year worldwide.