Slaughter and May is advising De La Rue plc (“De La Rue”) on its firm placing and placing and open offer of 90,909,091 new ordinary shares to raise gross proceeds of £100 million (the “Capital Raising”).
The Capital Raising is required to provide De La Rue and its management with operational and financial flexibility to implement De La Rue's three-year turnaround plan (first announced in February 2020), which seeks to return De La Rue to a strong financial position and sustainable growth by 2023. Among other things, the investment will be focused on driving the growth of De La Rue’s Authentication division and doubling the company’s capacity to produce polymer banknotes.
De La Rue has also entered into agreements with its lending banks and pension scheme trustee which are both conditional on the completion of the Capital Raising on or before the 31 July 2020. De La Rue has agreed with its lending banks, among other things, to extend the term of its existing financing facility (which was due to expire in December 2021) to 1 December 2023. The extended facility will, in conjunction with the Capital Raising, provide De La Rue with greater balance sheet strength and greater certainty of its future financing. The Company’s agreement with its pension scheme trustee will, among other things, result in reduced annual contributions being payable by De La Rue to its UK defined benefit pension scheme from 2020 to 2023.
The Capital Raising is conditional on shareholder approval at a general meeting to be held on 6 July 2020.
Slaughter and May is working as a combined team with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (advising on matters of US law) and Mourant Ozannes (advising on matters of Jersey law) to support De La Rue’s in-house legal team, led by Jane Hyde (General Counsel and Company Secretary).
Shu Qin Low / Trainee
Ashley Tan / Trainee
Charlie Wells / Trainee