In a trading statement to accompany its year-end preliminary results to 26 March 2005, the firm said the payout would be equivalent to 38p a share.

This will be accompanied by a share consolidation, which will reduce the number of shares in issue by 10%.

In March De la Rue predicted that results would be ahead of market forecasts, and it was proved right as it posted a pre-tax profit of 66.5m, 13.3% up on the previous year. The strong profit came despite a 5.8% fall in sales to 643.2m.

Chairman Nicholas Brookes said the performance had been achieved despite a 9.1m adverse impact  from currency exchanges, in particular the weakness of the US dollar throughout the year.

A strong operating result for its security paper and print division, where operating profit was up 7.5% to 45.6m, was helped by a delay in currency orders from the previous year, and the success of the 2bn Iraq bank note contract in 2003.