Banknote printer De La Rue leaps as City financier sparks takeover battle

By HUGO DUNCAN

Updated: 22:18 BST, 15 April 2025

De La Rue is at the centre of a bidding war as a City financier seeks to hijack a takeover by a US private equity firm.

The 211-year-old banknote printer yesterday backed a 130p a share offer worth £263million from buyout company Atlas Holdings.

But pensions and private equity tycoon Edi Truell has indicated he is willing to offer 132.17p a share for De La Rue, having unsuccessfully tabled a 125p proposal in January.

De La Rue – which printed the new King Charles notes –said it was sticking to its guns and backing the bid from Atlas. 

A spokesman added ‘there can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made’ by Truell, 62, and his companies Disruptive Capital and Pension Super Fund Capital.

De La Rue shares jumped 14.7 per cent to a three-year high of 128.5p – though they remain well below the 905p a share offered by French rival Oberthur in 2010. 

New offer: Pensions and private equity tycoon Edi Truell indicated he would offer 132.17p a share for De La Rue, after an unsuccessful bid in January

That approach – which valued De La Rue at £900million – was fought off by company bosses at the time.

Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at Hargreaves Lansdown, said investors who saw De La Rue shares sink as low as 30p two years ago will be ‘relieved’ at the recovery since then.

‘But those with longer teeth are more likely to remember that De La Rue’s directors fought off an approach valued at over 900p per share. Whoops,’ he added.

De La Rue prints banknotes for over half the world’s central banks, including the Bank of England, but suffered a major setback in 2018 when it lost the contract to make the UK’s post-Brexit passports.

The company has also printed newspapers, playing cards and greetings cards, and listed in London in 1947.

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Banknote printer De La Rue leaps as City financier sparks takeover battle

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