Those Printrak orders that De La Rue Plc has been trumpeting (CI Nos 1,113, 1114) have not been enough to prevent the business operating at a significant loss – so much so that there is talk of it being sold: De La Rue shocked the market on Tuesday by warning that group profits for the year to March will be very substantially lower than the UKP62.4m pre-tax it recorded last year, which banged the shares 65 pence to 392 pence and make the company, where Carlo de Benedetti with 4.9% and Robert Maxwell with 15% are looming too large for comfort on its shareholder register, an out-and-out takeover play.
