i'm buying on the blips

De La Rue secures strategic relationship for its paper business
1 February 2018
· Significant milestone in delivering our strategy to transform De La Rue into a less capital intensive, technology-led product and service provider

· Strengthens De La Rue's balance sheet and enables further investment in innovative technology solutions for the currency, identity and brand protection markets

· Secures long term paper supply for De La Rue's print requirements with a ten year supply contract

· Limits De La Rue's exposure to the external paper market

De La Rue plc ("De La Rue" or the "Group"), the world's leading security and anti-counterfeiting provider for banknotes and personal identity, today announces that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Epiris Fund II ("Epiris") for the Group's paper business, comprising the Overton paper mill and the Bathford paper mill, and to be named Portals De La Rue Limited ("Portals De La Rue").

Under the terms of the agreement, Epiris, together with management, will acquire a 90% shareholding in Portals De La Rue through a newly formed company WhickerCo Limited, for a cash consideration of c£61m payable upon completion. This equates to an enterprise value of £68m and a multiple of 12.8x average adjusted EBIT 2015-18. De La Rue will retain the remaining 10% interest.

StockMarketWire.com
De La Rue said Thursday it missed out on the contract to print the UK's new post-Brexit blue passports but insisted that this would not have an impact on the performance of the current and next financial year.

The current 10-year contract with Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) - due to expire in July 2019 - had a total value of roughly £400m.

'The company is disappointed with the outcome of the tender process and will now consider its options including an appeal,' De la Rue said.

That was not the desired result, so do as the EU do and resubmit the tender process stipulating that all persons involved in the passport printing, storage and transport must be UK citizens with full security clearance. I was going to add must also read and speak english fluently but that might disbar many at D L R, so we'll skip that bit.

you'll find nearly all dutch speak fluent english, and why should we get protectionist while complaining about trump?

A fluent english requirement would give an unfair advantage to the dutch, after all who outside Holland bothers learning dutch? My comment was intended to be tongue in cheek. I am less worried about who is printing the passports than who is dishing them out.

StockMarketWire.com
De La Rue said Wednesday adjusted operating profit fell 11% in the year to the end of March as the loss of revenue from its exited paper business, increased investment spend and costs associated with its failure to win the contract to print out the new blue UK passports weighed.

Adjusted operating profit fell 11% to £62.8m, while group revenue rose 7% to £493.9m. Excluding the exited paper business, group revenue was up 4% to £426.4m and adjusted operating profit was up 7% to £56.9m.

'Solid growth in all segments has been offset by strategically focused increases in investment in R&D and sales, which will drive long term sustainable growth,' the company said.

Higher volumes in both banknote print and paper were the main drivers for a growth of currency revenue of 2%, excluding the exited paper business.

The identity solution segment generated 4% revenue, while product authentication & traceability revenue jumped 31%.

Adjusted earnings per share fell 9% to 42.9p, while reported earnings per share rose 99% to 93.7p.

The cash proceeds from the sale of its paper business of £60.3m reduced net debt to £49.9m from £120.9m the previous year.

The group 12 month order book at March 2018 excluding paper orders rose 6% to £363m, compared to the previous year.

A final dividend of 16.7p per share was recommended, unchanged from the previous year.

'The sale of the paper business and the associated long term paper supply agreement have reduced our exposure to the volatility of the oversupplied paper market, while securing the surety of supply for our print business,' said Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer of De La Rue.

'Through this, and good cash generation from the business, we have significantly strengthened our balance sheet with net debt now at its lowest in five years. The stronger balance sheet provides the Group with greater flexibility to allocate capital to deliver long term shareholder value.'

StockMarketWire.com
De La Rue said Tuesday it was confident of meeting its expectation for the full year despite reporting first-half profits fell sharply, as the loss of revenue from its exited paper business continued to stifle performance.

For the six months ended 30 September, reported operating profit fell 59% to £10.1m and revenue rose 5% to £257.6m.

Excluding the impact of the exited paper business, group revenue was up 9% to £242m and adjusted operating profit was down 31% to £17m.

Net debt of £94.3m was above expectations, which the company blamed on timing of deliveries in the half year.

Following a strategic revenue review, the company said it would 'refocus our identity business on the supply of higher margin security features and components.'

The company proposed to leave the dividend unchanged, recommending an interim dividend of 8.3p a share. 'We continue to make progress in delivering against our strategic plan to transform the Group into a less capital intensive, more technology led business,' said Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer of De La Rue.

'Over the last six months we have conducted a thorough review of our strategy and market positions. In the light of the UK passport decision, we have concluded that we will refocus our identity business on the supply of higher margin security features and components.' 'We believe we can continue to drive cost efficiencies across the Group and achieve growth in Security Features, Polymer and PA&T. We expect our PA&T business to double in size within the next three years.' 'We maintain a strong order book and pipeline which provides good visibility for the second half of this year and into next year. With good revenue coverage from the Group's 12 month order book of £365m and based on the orders planned for production and shipment in the second half, we are confident that we will meet our expectations for the full year.'