Fingerprint Cards announces new cost cuts amid weak market, price pressure

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish biometrics firm Fingerprint Cards on Monday announced a new round of big cost cuts on the back of weak market conditions for capacitive sensors for smartphones and heavy price pressure.

The company said it expected the new cost cuts to yield savings of 350 million crowns ($39.8 million) on an annual basis, with full effect at the end of the fourth quarter.

Fingerprint Cards said it will cut around 179 staff, and the restructuring costs are seen at 65 million crowns, which will mainly be taken in the third quarter.

"We are continuing to adapt our operations to the fundamental and rapid change in business conditions, with the objective of returning to profitable growth," Fingerprint Cards Chief Executive Christian Fredrikson said in a statement.

"The cost reduction measures we are communicating today are important in order to strengthen our competitiveness," he added.

The company also said it would make an inventory write-down of around 336 million Swedish crowns and a 143 million crown write-off of capitalized research and development (R&D) projects.

During the first quarter of 2018, Fingerprint Cards implemented another cost reduction program, seen generating cost savings of 360 million crowns this year.

Fingerprint Cards' shares are down 60 percent so far in 2018 year on the back of rapidly falling sales and earnings.

(Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom)