Despite traditional bank note printer De La Rue Plc’s acquisition of Philips Electronics NV’s smart card subsidiary Philips Cartes SA (CI No 3,164), it still hasn’t managed to unravel the financial difficulties it got itself into last year and has reported profits for the year to March 31 down 30.3% at 78.5m pounds. Chairman Lord Limmerick commenting on the results said there were encouraging signs at the beginning of the year but the situation didn’t improve any in the second half. However, he is optimistic that business will pick up and said: it has been an important year in building a platform for future growth.
