What we know about Inform P Lykos; the Greek company printing IEBC ballot papers

IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein on Wednesday announced that Inform Lykos would print the papers at its headquarters in Greece, with a backup site situated in Romania.

Here is what we know about the company:

Founded in 1897, Inform P Lykos Holdings SA provides companies and agencies with products and services for secure document and information management towards highly specialised solutions.

The company, on its website, says it has a presence in Greece, Romania and Albania, and claims a leading position in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Lykos has been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange since 1994. There are 17 companies under its corporate family. 

The firm, through its subsidiaries, provides information management and processing services and products in paper and digital documents.

“We provide state-of-the-art technology, combined with personalised and efficient service to manage documents in physical and digital format and transform them into strategic units of information,” Manolis Kontos, the firm’s Managing Director, says.

“For over 100 years, our clients have been coming to us for innovation, style and exceptional service.​”

For a rumoured Ksh.3.49 billion, the firm is tasked with printing and shipping ballot papers, registration of voters and election declaration forms, among other items, ahead of the August 9 exercise.

The company is set to print in excess of 120 million ballots which it will ship to Kenya.

“It is a three-year framework contract with a budget of 28 million euros (Ksh.3.4 billion) and an estimated number of ballots in excess of 120 million,” said the firm in a regulatory filing to the Athens Stock Exchange.

“The project is referring to the production of election ballots that have the highest security standards, special packaging, air transportation, as well as the traceability process to ensure safe delivery to each constituency,” said Lykos.

The firm beat at least 14 firms who participated in the tender, including Dubai-based firm Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing LLC, which won the bid in 2016.

Lykos is no-stranger to the continent’s elections. The firm printed the ballot papers that were used in the Nigerian presidential election in 2019.