Oberthur, a maker of banknotes and smart-card technologies, recently sought reassurances from De La Rue, an acquisition target, about the impact on its business and reputation. This was caused by embarrassing paper-production irregularities that hurt its operations last year.
Jean-Pierre Savare, President of Oberthur, said "We believe there are crucial questions that need answering from De La Rue in relation to India and the status of De La Rue’s relationships with its existing customers, in the light of the continuing uncertainty surrounding the Company and its future prospects. We are extremely serious in making our approach and we believe a combination of De La Rue and Oberthur would provide the catalyst for restoring De La Rue’s standing and reputation, and help De La Rue deliver the high quality production and service that customers demand."
In addition, in response to recent speculation, Oberthur wishes to confirm that, in the event of any offer being made and successfully concluded, it intends to maintain the production of all sterling banknotes in the United Kingdom. Oberthur already has some 570 employees in the United Kingdom, having grown its workforce by almost 100 individuals over the last 10 years.
Jean-Pierre Savare added "In addition to expanding our client base of blue chip corporate clients and governments around the world, we have significantly grown our UK business and we believe the combination of Oberthur and De La Rue would bring immediate additional volumes of paper and print business into the UK De La Rue facilities."
