FPC increases its working capital with the issuance of bonds

As part of a strategic business transformation, Fingerprint Cards boosted its business with a SEK 300 million senior covered bond issue. The company says it will use proceeds from the bond issue to fund general business activities, including research and development efforts to fuel growth.

Going into technical details, FPC explained in a statement that it had issued “senior covered bonds with a duration of three years and a floating interest rate of Stibor 3 months + 9.0% per annum in a framework of SEK 500 million”. The company said the offer “has been well received by Nordic and European institutional investors” and that it will apply to list the bonds on the Nasdaq stock exchange in Stockholm.

The move comes shortly after the conclusion of a strategic review initiated by Fingerprints’ Board of Directors. The review determined that FPC will effectively be split into two subsidiaries, one (named “Fingerprint Technology Company”) to focus on mobile biometrics, and the other (“Fingerprint Cards Switzerland”) to maintain the payment business and corporate access control. The first will be based in Shanghai and the second in Zug, Switzerland.

According to Christian Fredrikson, CEO of Fingerprint Cards, both entities are already seeing growing demand and the company is looking to capitalize on this momentum.

“Fingerprints has ambitious growth plans, which increases the need for working capital and R&D investments,” he explained. “So I’m very pleased that we have now secured funding to further accelerate Fingerprints’ growth.”

Fingerprint Cards delivered a recent sign of this growth just a few weeks ago with the announcement of a partnership with UK technology company Freevolt. Freevolt uses FPC’s T-Shape fingerprint sensor module in a new access card dubbed “S-Key”.

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December 17, 2021 – by Alex Perala