Inteligensa Acquires Control of Intelcav Brazil

SAO PAULO, June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its multinational consolidation and expansion strategy, Inteligensa, founded by Venanzio Cipollitti in 1987, acquired 100% control of Intelcav in Brazil, one of the leading manufacturers and personalizers of secure payment smart cards in the world. Inteligensa established Intelcav in 2000, as its first manufacturing initiative, after having been the Latin American sales representative of the prestigious Bank Card Manufacturer, KirkPlastic, of California since 1990.

"KirkPlastic's tradition and culture for high quality and perfection, having been the inventor of the plastic card in the 40's and the first to manufacturer today's leading bank cards in the 50's, was an inspiration for us to establish Intelcav's rigorous quality and reliability standards that made it famous in Brazil and in Latin America", said Cipollitti.

Intelcav currently has three card plants in Brazil, located in Getulio Vargas (RS), Sao Paulo and Manaus. Intelcav, was pioneer in producing and encoding Banking EMV Chip Cards in Latin America since 2003, and maintains its leadership in the Brazilian and Latin American payment card market. Intelcav is also leader in producing Mass Transportation Contactless Chip Cards from its Manaus plant, a market that covers over 300 cities in Brazil.

Cipollitti explained that Intelcav has been growing rapidly in the Mobile SIM market, as well as in the markets of electronic Chip Identification Cards, having been selected as one of the key manufacturers of the Brazilian National ID Card (RIC). Intelcav will be launching its Electronic Chip Health Card at the Cartes 2013 tradeshow in Paris. The company has invested constantly in R&D, with several innovations in card products made in Brazil, such as the Display Card for OTP on line authentication, launched in 2009 and the recycled PET card for which it received a Sesames Award in 2010, amongst others. Intelcav is also pioneering the Banking Dual Interface EMV Chip Card.

The shareholding acquisition was conducted on May 27, 2013. "This transaction will now allow the full integration of the Inteligensa Group companies, with its new headquarters in Miami and a total of 10 enterprises that cover most of Latin American countries as well as the United States and Europe. Inteligensa currently owns 8 Manufacturing Plants for Smart Cards and RFID identification devices as well as 4 Card Personalization Bureaus. The main goal in joining Intelcav with Inteligensa Companies is to serve our customers more efficiently in more territories by integrating our human talents and resources, enhancing our production capacity and service levels " said Cipollitti.

Intelcav will now have a stronger international projection especially with the integration of Intelicard, a major card manufacturing plant based in Sardegna, Italy, that Inteligensa acquired in 2011, one of the largest and most modern in Europe which will deliver smart cards to the EMEA countries. Intelcav will also be integrated with Inteligensa's new Smart Card Personalization and RFID Devices Manufacturing site in Mexico City, which was inaugurated in November 2012.