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De La Rue remains 'cautious' after losing UK passport tender
British banknote manufacturer De La Rue told investors to expect a 6% increase in revenues from its recently ended trading year but remained "cautious" about its outturn for 2018 after losing Britain's passport tender back in March.
Full-year underlying operating profits were anticipated to be in the low-to-mid-£60m range, which reflected the write off of roughly £4m worth of bid costs related to the UK passport tender and delays in the shipment of certain contracts during the last week of the period.
Having considered all options, De La Rue decided not to appeal the Passport Office's decision to strip the UK passport tender from it, but maintained that it would continue to fulfil its existing contract and assist with the transition to the new supplier, meaning that the AIM-quoted firm anticipated little-to-no impact on its performance in the next 18 months.
"At this early stage of the new financial year, the group is cautious about the outturn for the full year, however, starts off with a satisfactory order book underpinned by 16% growth in total order intake driven by strong growth in identity solutions and product authentication," De La Rue said in its Wednesday morning trading update.
De La Rue, which will issue its 2017/18 full-year results on 30 May, strengthened its balance sheet throughout the year, with net debt significantly reducing to roughly £55m as of 31 March 2018
As of 1050 BST, shares had dropped 5.36% to 465.65p.