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Shares in De La Rue, the UK company that prints the country’s banknotes, climbed after the group said it was in discussions with outside investors to take a significant stake in the business.
Disruptive Capital GP Limited and Pension SuperFund Capital are in discussions with a view to acquiring a stake of as much as 40 per cent in the group, according to a statement from De La Rue on Thursday. The investor group has proposed a price of £1.25 per share.
De La Rue shares closed 3 per cent higher in London trading on Thursday.
Edi Truell, the veteran City financier and founder of both Disruptive Capital and Pension Superfund Capital, said he had been in discussions with De La Rue for several months.
“We’ve been in conversations for some time,” Truell told the Financial Times. “It is still fairly early days and we need to hammer out terms and conditions.”
De La Rue said in its statement to the market that the investor group “have indicated that they are not seeking statutory control of the company and have confirmed their support for the company’s management and current strategy”.
That includes De La Rue’s plans to sell the company’s authentication division for a £300mn enterprise value to Crane NXT, and discussions “with other parties” regarding the group’s currency unit.
Pension SuperFund Capital was set up by Truell in 2023 with the aim of providing capital to corporate pension funds that wish to “run on” rather than have liabilities sold to an insurer, or to pass them to the pension lifeboat if the sponsoring employer failed.
The approach comes as Pension SuperFund Capital is looking to strike its first deal.
Truell told the FT that the De La Rue pension scheme’s trustees were involved in the discussions, and confirmed that he was not looking to take a majority stake in the business. According to De La Rue’s accounts, its pension scheme had a deficit of £52mn at the end of March.
De La Rue declined to respond to Truell’s comments.
Earlier on Thursday, the company reported headline operating profits of £7.3mn for the first half of the year, from £7.9mn for the same period last year. It added that its currency order book was at its highest level in at least five years.
Under UK takeover rules, the investors have until January 9 to make a firm offer for their stake purchase or walk away from talks.
