De La Rue Plc, the struggling UK bank note printing and smart card company, has sold its loss-making terminals business to Ingenico SA, in a 9.5m-pound deal which will give it a 4.41% stake in Ingenico. When the deal was first discussed in July of this year, De La Rue was due to receive a 15.3% stake in the company and an option to buy a majority stake (CI No 3,460). But at the beginning of this month, however, French smart card and IT vendor Groupe Bull SA exchanged its Telesincro payment terminals business for a 31% stake in Ingenico, instantly diluting De La Rue’s potential stake in the enlarged group. Though De La Rue could have made a cash payment for a larger holding, directors felt this would not go down well with shareholders. De La Rue is getting rid of a liability as its terminal business made a loss of 1.8m pounds on sales of 7.9m pounds in the six months through September 30. Taking into account liabilities it will retain after the sale, De La Rue will incur a loss on the disposal of around 15m pounds. De La Rue said that it will continue to hold its Ingenico shares in the medium term and will work with Ingenico and Bull to explore future opportunities in the electronic transactions market.
