French group Paragon ID buys Galway fintech Amatech

Paragon ID, a French stock market-listed group, has agreed a deal to take control of Galway-based fintech security company, Amatech.

Paragon told investors on Friday that it had agreed a deal to buy “a very significant majority shareholding in the Irish company. Amatech will become a subsidiary of Paragon ID, which has 600 staff and annual sales of €11 million.

Amatech has its main base in Spiddal and was founded in 2007 by businessman David Finn, who has been involved in the development of contactless payment technology since the 1990s.

Amatech, a former finalist in The Irish Times Innovations Awards, develops security technology used in bank cards, passports and other identification cards. Paragon ID says it intends to bring the Irish company's products to market "worldwide" via its international sales network.

MoneyConf organisers may hold more events in Dublin

---

Davy pares back Paddy Power profit forecasts on Australian betting tax

---

Shares in ZTE plunge as much as 41%, wiping $3bn off value of company

---

Irish attitudes to cryptocurrencies shifting ‘from suspicion to curiosity’

---

‘Enormous opportunities’

Mr Finn welcomed the takeover by Paragon and highlighted the opportunities available in the market for RFID (radio frequency identification).

“I see enormous opportunities for the future in this rapidly growing and developing field of RFID,” said Mr Finn.

Amatech is backed by private investors and Údarás na Galetachta. Its most recent set of filed accounts, for 2015, show shareholders’ funds of €2 million.

Although separately incorporated and listed in Paris, Paragon ID is connected to the larger Paragon Group of technology companies, which operates from an “administrative hub” in Dublin.