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De La Rue's Bank of England contract out to tender

Shares in banknote printer De La Rue have slipped after a £1bn sterling job with the Bank of England goes out to tender.
December 10, 2012

Banknote printer De La Rue (DLAR) was hit by news that the Bank of England has put the £1bn contract to print sterling up for tender. The contract is set to start from April 2015 and will run for more than 10 years, producing an estimated 12 billion banknotes, according to the tender documents. The deal, which could be won by an overseas supplier, stipulates that all notes must be produced at the Bank of England's Debden site in Essex, that is currently leased and operated by De La Rue.

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De La Rue shares were down only marginally to 927p, and Paul Jones, an analyst at broker Panmure Gordon, says: "This is a storm in a teacup, at worst profit margins might come under pressure from aggressive bidding by competitors." The deadline for tenders is the end of January.