In a trading update the PLC’s board said that it had started to incur costs “in relation to the separation process”, involving the physical and legal separation of its two divisions: Authentication and Currency.

This, together with a wait for payments on a number of big contracts, and the need to build inventory for customer orders means that net debt in H1 is likely to be up compared with the end of its last financial year.

De La Rue’s board said the group remained confident of achieving adjusted operating profit for FY25 “significantly ahead of FY24” in the mid- to high-£20m bracket. 

For H1 FY25, which ends on 28 September, group adjusted operating profit is expected to be in the low single digit range. 

“As in prior years, the group business performance will be H2 weighted, and this has been somewhat amplified by the timing of certain deliveries within the Currency division moving into the second half of FY25,” the board stated.

For the year to 30 March De La Rue posted overall sales down 11.3% at £310.3m.

Sales at its Currency division fell by 18.7% to £207.1m, while its Authentication business grew and passed the landmark £100m figure with sales up 12.5% at £103.2m.

Authentication filed adjusted operating profit slightly up at £14.6m (FY23: £14.3m).

Currency’s adjusted operating profit more than halved, at £6.4m (FY23: £13.6m).

De La Rue has an upcoming obligation to repay its £235m revolving credit facility on or before 1 July 2025 – with a forecast of insufficient liquidity to repay it if it cannot successfully conclude some form of sale.

De La Rue’s share price fell from 94.66p to 85.60p following yesterday’s announcement but recovered to 89.20p earlier today (52-week high: 107p, low: 56.40p).

The group’s current market capitalisation is just over £175m.