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Prism-ACT marriage remains unconsumated.

The equity swap deal announced in January by Johannesburg based information technology company Applied Card Technology (ACT) between ACT and Prism Card Technologies - the smart card development subsidiary of South African secure electronic payment specialists Prism Investment Holdings - is off.

In an announcement made in Johannesburg, the managing director of Prism Card Technologies, Mike Serrao stated, "We are disappointed that we have been unable to finalise the commercial terms of the proposed cross-shareholding with ACT."

The collapse of the deal leaves Prism with its own embedded software and cryptography development resources intact, but for now the productive capacity Prism can deliver is limited to around one million smart cards per month. "We plan to expand this capacity as soon as practically possible," Serrao said, adding, "Plans that have been on hold for ISO9000 and Visa approvals for our own facility pending the ACT deal, are once again on track and should result in certification by the fourth quarter this year."

Serrao elaborated, "The vision of a one-stop smart-card shop for Africa is one to which we remain totally committed. We will soon be moving aggressively into the supply of GSM smart card products where our local software development capabilities will be of real significance to African network operators wishing to extend handset functionality. Our existing customers, including large local banks, retailers, other loyalty payment, identity and digital certification smart card users as well as a number of African telephone card issuers will still benefit from Prism's in-house combination of local software development and local production capacity."

For details contact Duncan Todd, Group Marketing Director of Prism on tel: (011) 467-0100, fax: (011) 467-0160, e-mail: [email protected] or visit www.prism.co.za.

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