De La Rue's suitor comes out into the open

Embattled banknote printer De La Rue could fall into foreign hands after a rival firm from France revealed it wanted to buy the company.

Paris-based Oberthur said it made an offer of 905p per share on November 10 but De La Rue's management refused to enter into negotiations, saying that it did not believe the offer recognised the true value of the company.

De La Rue's share price has plummeted by more than a third in recent months following production problems that caused its chief executive James Hussey to resign and cost the group 35m.

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Oberthur brought its offer out in the open yesterday with a statement which is likely to put pressure on De La Rue to engage in talks. It said: "Oberthur very much hopes that the board of De La Rue will agree to enter into substantive discussions, possibly leading to an offer which would benefit the company's customers, its staff and its shareholders and could provide the catalyst for restoring the company's reputation."

Its offer was a 64 per cent increase on De La Rue's share price when it slumped to 550p following a trading update on November 23 in which the company revealed the cost of the blunder.

Oberthur would deduct the 14.1p dividend announced in November and any future dividend payments from its offer, it added.

Shares in De La Rue soared dramatically following the announcements and closed at 841p, having risen by 193.5p – an increase of just under 30 per cent .

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De La Rue said the potential offer was "highly preliminary and opportunistic".

The world's biggest banknote printer said in its half-year results in November that volumes were set to drop 20 per cent this year following the crisis, which suspended production and a shipment of the affected banknote for two months.

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