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weden-based security service provider Gunnebo Security Group boosted its efforts to grow its cash-handling business in Indonesia after signing on Monday a Rp 20 billion (US$1.6 million) agreement with publicly listed taxi operator Express Transindo Utama (Express Group).

Under the purchase agreement, Gunnebo will provide 50 cash handling equipment machines '€” dubbed Intelli-Safe '€” for 25 Express taxi pools in the greater Jakarta area.

Gunnebo president and CEO Per Borgvall said after the signing ceremony that the agreement with Express was the company'€™s first, and an important step in his company'€™s efforts to tap into the cash-handling business in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy.

He said Gunnebo was in negotiations with a number of other business enterprises interested in using the Intelli-Safe.

Borgvall was upbeat that cash handling services, which currently accounts for 40 percent of Gunnebo'€™s global business, would grow in Indonesia.

'€œIndonesia is among the top five key markets for Gunnebo group ['€¦] and cash handling is important business here,'€ he said.

As in many other countries, the huge amount of circulating cash as well as the increased demand for efficiency and security are the drivers of the growing cash-handling services market in Indonesia

The country'€™s money in circulation surged by 11 percent in July, to Rp 3.89 quadrillion; up from the Rp 3.46 quadrillion in circulation in July of last year, according to Bank Indonesia data.

Setiawan Saad, Gunnebo Indonesia'€™s business area manager for cash handling, said that given the huge amount of money circulating, more enterprises would look for ways to increase efficiency and security when handling cash.

'€œIntelli-Safe offers that kind of solution, in which Express [for instance], cash-in-transit (CIT) companies, cash-processing centers (CPC) and banks can access the exact amount of money being deposited by taxi drivers through the machine on a real-time basis,'€ he said, adding that giant retailers often took two days just to transfer cash to banks.

Express president director Da-niel Podiman said he predicted that the cash-handling machines would make his daily cash-handling process up to 70 percent more efficient and that his firm planned to buy more machines in the future.

'€œWe usually need between four and eight cashiers for cash-handling, but I think we will only need one or two cashiers to do the same amount of work with the presence of the machines,'€ he said.

Gunnebo Indonesia country manager Hindra Kurniawan said his company would target all business sectors '€” but especially retail '€” in developing its cash-handling business in the country.

'€œIn the past, the banking sector made up 60 percent of Gunnebo'€™s revenue in Indonesia. Now, other business sectors, including industry and retail, have begun contributing more to our company'€™s [business],'€ he said.

Gunnebo Indonesia expects to see a 17 percent growth in revenue his year, mainly driven by its existing safe deposit and fire extinguisher business, in addition to its cash-handling business, he said.

Currently, Gunnebo produces 30,000 safe deposits annually; 60,000 fire extinguishers and 5,000 to 10,000 cash-handling machines from its factory in Cibitung, West Java.