De La Rue surges as City financier Edi Truell said to have made 125p a share takeover offer

(Sharecast News) - De La Rue shares shot higher on Thursday following a report the banknote printer has been approached about a takeover by City financier Edi Truell. According to Sky News, pensions and private equity entrepreneur Truell - the chairman and co-founder of Disruptive Capital - has tabled a conditional offer for De La Rue a 125p per share.

The proposal, a roughly 25% premium to the company's share price on Thursday morning, was said to be dependent upon the completion of a £300m deal to sell De la Rue's authentication division to Crane NXT, which was announced in October.

De La Rue confirmed last month that while it had not received an offer for the whole company, it was in talks with Disruptive Capital and Pension SuperFund Capital entities about a possible equity stake in the business.

It said at the time that PSFC Entities had indicated they were not seeking statutory control of the company and confirmed their support for De La Rue's management and current strategy, including the announced disposal of the authentication division and the ongoing discussions with other parties in relation to the currency division.

De La Rue said the proposal was to buy a stake of up to 40% at 125p a share.

Under takeover rules, the PSFC Entities had until 1700 GMT on Thursday 9 January to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or walk away.

Sky cited a banking source as saying that the 'put up or shut up' deadline was expected to be extended to allow De La Rue's board time to consider Truell's full cash offer for the company.

According to Sky, De La Rue's directors, led by chairman Clive Whiley, are also expected to continue to explore other alternatives to maximise value for long-suffering shareholders, including a standalone sale of the currency-printing business or other proposals to acquire the entire company.

At 1205 GMT, the shares were up 11.3% at 114.08p.