De La Rue Issues Trading Update

De La Rue has issued a trading update in which it said that it expects its full year operating profits to be in line with market expectations (these being based on the average published notes from Investec and Numis Securities). Net debt is expected to be slightly better than market expectations of £75 million.

This follows the company’s last trading update on 24 January this year, in which it said significant headwinds since its interim results last autumn had become more pronounced, in particular the COVID variants leading to substantially increased employee absences, resulting in lower operational output for the year. In addition, it was contending with supply chain shortages and increased costs relating to these.

As a result of these external factors, DLR expects adjusted operating profit for the full year to be broadly similar to last financial year, in the £36-40 million range, versus original market expectations of approximately £45-47 million.