De La Rue excluded from India’s currency paper contract
06 Jan 2011
London/New Delhi: Oberthur Technologies has asked British banknote printer De La Rue to confirm whether or not it has lost out on a new contract to supply the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with currency paper. The Indian central bank is believed to be the main international customer of the banknote printer's currency business.
Oberthur's queries were prompted by a recent tender by India's finance ministry for the supply of currency paper. On Tuesday it asked De La Rue to provide clarity on its prospects for winning the tender, given the fact that the RBI was its key customer
"Oberthur believes that De La Rue should inform the market if it was an unsuccessful participant in such [a] key tender for the Reserve Bank of India or if it was not even invited to participate in that tender," the group said.
The loss of the tender, hinted at though not confirmed, could harm De La Rue's defence against an £895 million pound ($1.4 billion) take-over bid from French group Oberthur Technologies, the world's third biggest banknote maker.
De La Rue rejected the approach from the French group in December.
De La Rue had confirmed in July that there had been production problems at one of its paper factories. Following these problems it was speculated that the UK firm would lose out on future contracts for banknote paper with the RBI in the near future.