The London listed company that prints British banknotes has been sold to an American investment firm in a £263 million deal.
The board of De La Rue, which was founded in 1813 and has been quoted on the London stock market since 1947 has agreed a 130p a share offer from Connecticut based Atlas Holdings.
It represents a 19% premium. to the closing price of 110p on 11 December 2024 the day before the offer period began.
The deal will end the listing of yet another long standing company with shares traded in London.
Atlas already owns the construction services firm Bovis and creative services agency ASG.
The offer from Atlas Holdings does not include De La Rue's authentication division, which is being sold to US-listed Crane NXT in a separate £300 million deal.
De La Rue chairman Clive Whiley, said: “In a little under two years since I joined De La Rue, we have made profound changes which have benefitted all stakeholders.
“This offer from Atlas being announced today is the final step in this successful process - through the stabilisation of that initial position, the strategic review and transactional action plan, and culminating in the disposal of the Authentication Division and ultimately this cash offer - securing full and complete value realisation and security for all of today's stakeholders across our financiers, pension trust, employees and shareholders.”
Peter Bacon of Atlas, said: “We believe that our strategic resources and capital will be able to support and enhance the De La Rue business going forward.
2As a private company, not bound by periodic public reporting, we will be able to focus on the optimal long-term strategy for De La Rue."
De La Rue's currency arm prints money for central banks all over the world. It has printing sites in the UK, Kenya, Malta and Sri Lanka.
In 2020, the Bank of England announced that it had extended De La Rue's contract from the end of 2025 until 2028.
At the time, there were 4.4 billion Bank of England notes in circulation with a collective value of about £82 billion. It also made British passports up to 2018.
De La Rue traces its roots back to 1813, when Thomas De La Rue established a printing business on Guernsey and published the first edition of the island newspaper Le Miroir Politique. Within eight years, De la Rue had established himself in London as a printer and stationer.
By 1855 the company was printing postage stamps, and in 1860 it began printing money, at first for Mauritius. In 1914 it began printing 10-shilling notes for the UK government on the outbreak of the First World War.
Over the years it has also manufactured playing cards, board games and fountain pens.
De La Rue was part of the Camelot consortium that bid for the first UK national lottery contracts in the 1990s. It sold its interest in Camelot in 2010.
