Security printer De La Rue may bid for a part of debt-mired Polaroid, which specialises in identity cards.

The Basingstoke-based company is said to be in talks with the photographic multinational for ID Systems, a division that earned 65m last year from its photo identity cards.

It comes three months after De La Rue said it was on a 200m hunt for new acquisitions after announcing an 11m rise in operating profits to 66m on sales of 525m for the year to April (PrintWeek, 25 May).

The sale would ease a cash crisis for Polaroid, which has nearly 9,000 staff worldwide and is trying to renegotiate debts of just over 600m. ID Systems, based in Massachusetts and Indiana, produces driving licences for 36 US states and makes government identity cards.

De La Rue did not comment but an industry insider said the firm had had several rounds of very active discussions and it was highly interested.

Early in the summer it said it wanted to buy big and limbered up with a huge restructuring into three core areas of payment, identity and brand protection.

It sold its stake in Swiss security-press specialist De La Rue Giori to KBA in June.

Chief executive Ian Much said the changes were not about cost cutting but creating more growth.

Story by Jez Abbott