The company which prints banknotes for the Bank of England is on the brink of an historic takeover that would see it owned by private equity investors for the first time since it was founded 212 years ago.
Sky News has learnt that Atlas Holdings, a US-based buyout firm, is in advanced talks about a 130p-a-share offer for De La Rue.
The London-listed company’s leading investors are understood to have been asked to provide irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer, with one shareholder saying that a deal recommended by De La Rue’s board was likely to be announced as early as Tuesday morning.
If completed, a takeover deal would end nearly 80 years of De La Rue’s status as a London Stock Exchange-listed business, having made its public company debut in 1947.
Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, Atlas Holdings focuses on acquiring companies in sectors such as industrials, trading and energy.
Among the businesses it owns in Europe are London-based graphic and creative services agency ASG and Bovis, a British construction services group.
Banking sources said the 130p-a-share offer for De La Rue would represent a robust premium to a price which sank below 50p in mid-2023, but which has since recovered to close at 112p on Monday evening.
Atlas Holdings is understood to have drafted in bankers from Lazard to advise it, while De La Rue is being advised by Deutsche Numis.
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 £300m transaction which took a further step towards completion last week.
The proceeds from that deal have been earmarked to repay loans and reduce its pension scheme deficit.
De La Rue’s currency arm prints money for a large number of central banks around the world, including in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe.
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…
