By Yamini Kalia
(Reuters) -Banknote printer De La Rue is in talks for a stake sale of up to 40% that could value it at about 245 million pounds ($311 million), the British company said on Thursday, hours after it pointed to a rebound in orders in its interim results.
The firm’s shares ended the day 2.3% higher at 1.12 pounds – just short of the proposal of 1.25 pounds per share – in choppy trading after De La Rue posted a fall in operating profits but said it had seen a surge in new orders.
De La Rue said the proposal was from private equity firm Disruptive Capital GP and pension fund manager Pension SuperFund Capital, adding that they were supportive of its management and strategy, and did not seek control of the company.
The bounceback in orders could help De La Rue into 2026 as it also explores options for its struggling currency division after it sold its authentication business in October.
More than 200 years old, De La Rue has been trying to recover since the COVID pandemic when banks stockpiled cash and consumers increasingly turned to contact-less payments.
Chief Executive Clive Vacher said there were signs of returning demand for banknotes from central banks.
De La Rue’s order book, which stood at 338 million pounds at the end of November, was “better than anything that I can see in the past 20 years,” he told Reuters.
Earlier this month, the central bank of Libya, hit by a liquidity shortage, said it had contracted the company to print 30 billion dinars.
De La Rue expects its performance to be second-half weighted, with some contract deliveries within the currency division moving into the next six-month period and gaining further momentum in fiscal 2026.
The company posted an adjusted operating profit of 7.3 million pounds for the six months ended Sept. 30, down from 7.9 million pounds in the same period last year.
($1 = 0.7874 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Keith Weir)
