Giesecke & Devrient announces shareholder investment in Korean Smart Card Company Solacia Inc.
Munich (Germany), December 21, 2016 –Global leader in mobile security solutions G&D plans to invest in Solacia, an affiliate of Hansol Group, in order to move closer to major OEM customer and to strenghten the cooperation on innovative new business fields such as IoT and Connected Cars. G&D will hold 16.29% of Solacia's shares as a result of third-party paid-in capital increase (1.2 million shares).
Korea is a world`s leading economy with more than 50 mio inhabitants and headquarters of international high-tech companies such as Samsung and LG. Always striving for leadership in key technology, Korean companies are highly innovative in building up a connected society where smart devices and connected services are already today part of the daily life.
For Stefan Auerbach, Group Executive Mobile Security at G&D, the partnership is an essential success factor to strengthen G&D’s local presence: “Korea is a very attractive market for G&D. With the strategic investment in Solacia, G&D improves its access to the Korean telecommunications, mobile OEMs and customers for Cyber Security solutions. Beyond that the complementary product and solution portfolio will also allow to address global markets.”
As part of the agreement Solacia will become distributor for G&D products and solutions in the Korean market. Thus, Solacia plans to supply G&D’s world leading eSIM offerings to domestic telecom operators and IoT manufacturers. Especially, smart device use cases (e.g. for wearables and smart home) are expected to lead the way. Sang-Jin Park, CEO of Solacia, comments the investment as follows: "We have secured next tier USIM, especially embedded SIM (eSIM) products and related technology through strategic alliance through G&D, and also plan to supply eSIM to domestic telecom operators and IoT manufacturers in the next big steps.” In addition Solacia will market G&D’s Cyber Security offerings such as Secure Industrial Visibility to Korean companies to secure manufacturing and production processes.
Furthermore, G&D and Solacia will pool their development resources and expertise to create attractive mobile communications, security and connectivity solutions for the Korean market.
Deal closing is expected for Q1/2017 subject to anti-trust approvals.
About Solacia
Solacia is a leading smartcard company and subsidiary of Hansol Group. Hansol has 25 domestic and 15 international subsidiaries. The total capital is over USD 5 billion, and is a part of the leading multinational corporations based in Korea. Solacia developed the world’s first Combi-USIM. More recently, with the development of NFC/LTE USIM’s and Security Platform solution, Solacia is continuing to pursue an innovative impression on the market. Solacia provides its solutions to South Korea’s two largest telcos, SKT and KT.
Solacia became listed on the KOSDAQ in 2010, and became a part the Hansol Group in 2011.
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