In total the two operations give L1 une 1

A few days after having reached an agreement with SNPE and announced an alliance with Elbit, Safran struck yesterday a great blow to strengthen its presence in the United States in a strong growth area: solutions for the secure identification of persons. For $ 1.1 billion in cash, the French manufacturer will resume us L - 1 Identity Solutions, a global leader in biometric recognition (from elements of the human body) and which carries out nearly 90 of its revenues overseas.

The purchase of L-1 "represents an important step to safety the third pillar of the group with 20 of the sales and of profits in the term," said Jean-Paul Herteman, the President of the Executive Board of Safran. The latter agreed to pay 12 dollars per share, or a premium of 31 on average over a month. End of August, it is 3 m that brought out its Chequebook to resume the other leader of the sector, the American Cogent, for 430 million.

The offer covers all of the titles of L - 1, but French will the keys to the House once sold Government Council to the British BAE Systems for $ 296 million. An agreement was also announced yesterday in this sense. In total, the two operations give L-1 une $ 1.6 billion enterprise value.

The assets which will join saffron cover three types of activities: solutions biometric and access control, which recognize a person from his iris or fingerprints, the manufacture of secure titles such as passports or cards access to airports, and recruitment services to capture personal data and check the history. In all, 1,300 people in 20 countries, for 436 million of turnover in 2009 and a rate of more than 10 operating margin. According to the OEM, repeated activities benefit from two and a half years of backlog, with agreements of five to seven years on average with the American States, including.

As all the actors in this market, L-1 took the safe wave post-11 September, especially in the United States. The company was founded in 2006 by Robert V. LaPenta, who already was know at the end of the 1990s with two other partners in creating L - 3 Communications, has become, shots of acquisitions, a tenor of the aerospace and defence. Applying the same revenue, L - 1 took over a half of companies, which, beginning of 2008, Digimarc, that already coveted Safran. But, no doubt to have paid his targets too dear, L-1 almost never won silver, because of significant impairment losses in its accounts.

Geographical complementarity

Safran is already active in biometrics and secure documents, especially this outside the United States. More than technology, therefore first geographical complementarity that Olivier Andries, Deputy Director-General responsible for the defence-security industry, put forward to justify the operation. The stock market applauded and the action won 5.21 yesterday. "The price paid is high, but it is the recognition of the enabling nature of activity and the quality of the technology of L - 1", reacts analyst, very confident in the capacity of Saffron to absorb the increase in debt. As the OEM has pledged 30 million of operational synergies within eighteen months. The assigned duties at the headquarters of L - 1 could also be somewhat alleviated.