Fortress Acquires Bank of Canada’s Optical Security Material Division

Fortress Paper, paper and wallpaper manufacturing company, announced that it would pay $750,000 to acquire the optical security material division of Bank of Canada. The optical security division is a manufacturer of materials for security threads in the Canadian banknotes.

Fortress stated that the contract incorporates the procurement of certain intellectual property rights and numerous machinery and production devices. The company added that certain optical security material division employees would move to their company. Fortress, after completing the acquisition, will move the unit to a production and R&D center in Quebec. The facility was acquired by Fortress in March 2010 for $3 million. The acquisition is expected to be closed by January 2011.

Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Fortress commented that the company would utilize the new facility to market the security services to various other banknote manufacturers present all over the world. The optical security material would enhance and complement the Quebec facility.