De La Rue, the Financial institution of England’s foreign money printer, is closing in on the £300m sale of considered one of its two core companies – a transfer that can pave the best way for a takeover of its remaining operations.
Banking sources mentioned the deal – first introduced final October – was now anticipated to be accomplished on the finish of this month.
The sale of the authentication division, which works with authorities shoppers by offering traceability software program to assist detect fraud, will depart De La Rue locked in talks with potential consumers of its market-leading foreign money printing enterprise.
De La Rue is working a proper sale course of beneath Takeover Panel guidelines, with a string of events mentioned to have expressed an curiosity in it for the reason that interval started late final 12 months.
Amongst its potential suitors has been Edi Truell, the outstanding Metropolis financier and pensions entrepreneur.
De La Rue’s administrators, led by chairman Clive Whiley, have been exploring a number of options to maximise worth for long-suffering shareholders, together with a standalone sale of the currency-printing enterprise or different proposals to amass all the firm.
Its steadiness sheet has been beneath pressure for years.
In 2023, De La Rue was compelled to hunt respiratory house from its pension trustees by deferring tens of hundreds of thousands of kilos of funds into its retirement pot.
Quickly after that, the corporate parachuted in Mr Whiley, a seasoned company troubleshooter, as chairman, with a mandate to restore its battered funds.
Since then, its inventory has recovered strongly and is up 31% during the last 12 months.
Its banknote printing arm is among the world’s market leaders within the sector, and has contracts with main central banks world wide.
In recent times, the British firm has been beset by a sequence of company mishaps, together with a string of revenue warnings, a public row with its auditor and challenges in its operations in nations together with India and Kenya.
De La Rue traces its roots again to 1813, when Thomas De La Rue established a printing enterprise.
Eight years later, he started producing straw hats after which moved into printing stationery, in response to an official historical past of the corporate.
Its first paper cash was produced for the federal government of Mauritius in 1860, and in 1914 it started printing 10-shilling notes for the UK authorities on the outbreak of the First World Conflict.
A De La Rue spokesman declined to touch upon Sunday night.
