De La Rue inches towards authentication division sale

De La Rue is on the brink of completing a £300m ($383m) deal to sell its authentication division to Crane NXT, which will also clear the way for a takeover of its remaining banknote printing operations.

The company said in a financial filing that the conditions for the sale of authentication to Crane NXT – which was announced last October – had been "satisfied or waived" and the transaction is now expected to be completed by May 1.

According to the terms of the deal, £15m of the transaction fee will be held in escrow for up to 18 months after completion, while £30m will go towards plugging a hole in De La Rue's pensions scheme. It will also allow the company to repay a £235m revolving credit facility before the end of June that has been held up as threatening its ability to survive as a viable business.

The transaction will bring together the authentication and online brand protection portfolios of De La Rue – which include tax stamps, security labels and other technologies – and Crane NXT's recently acquired subsidiary OpSec.

Earlier this year, De La Rue said it had kicked off a formal sale process for its currency division, after receiving other takeover approaches in addition to a previously announced bid by a consortium linked to financier Edi Truell.