Acquisition Expands Multicard's Reach in the European Education and Healthcare Markets

Identive Group announced the acquisition of Polyright SA, a provider of identity management solutions for the education and healthcare markets based in Sion, Switzerland. The acquisition was made pursuant to an agreement executed on July 18, 2011 between Identive's Multicard AG subsidiary and polyright's co-owners, Securitas AG and the Kudelski Group.

Founded in 1997 and with offices in Sion, Zurich and Lausanne, polyright is the leading Swiss provider of identity management platforms and open-ended rights and services management solutions for higher education, healthcare and industry. The company's core competence is the development, installation and maintenance of single-credential, multi-function identity management and cashless payment solutions integrated with third-party systems such as enterprise resource planning or access control. polyright's platform allows integration of such functions as personnel and user management, physical and logical access control, cashless payment, and use of third-party services such as car parking, bicycle/vehicle rental, printing and photocopying and similar applications.

Ayman S. Ashour, chairman and chief executive officer of Identive Group, commented, "polyright's exceptional position in the education and healthcare markets in Switzerland will provide a strong addition to our Multicard business in the loyalty and commercial sectors. The polyright team has done an excellent job in building an identity management software platform that allows for easy integration of multiple applications, and their reach to leading clients in Switzerland as well as their direct link to consumers is an important attraction for us."

Mauro Saladini, chief financial officer of the Kudelski Group, stated, "We are very happy to have found the right partner who will further develop polyright's activities. Our decision to sell our equity position in polyright is an outcome of the strategic review of the Kudelski Group activities announced in February 2011."

Hans Winzenried, chief executive officer Swiss Securitas Group, said, "We are convinced that Identive Group will further strengthen polyright's products and services. I am glad that we can continue to offer and sell the polyright solution to our customer base."

Thierry Gattlen, founder and chief executive officer of polyright, commented, "We are excited to join Identive as we see strong alignment with Identive's market activities around identity management. We believe we can provide additional market opportunities for the company in Switzerland and look forward to the continuation and expansion of our excellent cooperation with the Kudelski and Securitas groups."