(Adds details on CEO, lost contract and background)
Oct 7 (Reuters) - Banknote and passport printer De La Rue
Plc on Monday named Clive Vacher as chief executive
officer to replace Martin Sutherland, whose departure was
announced in May after the company warned of a profit downturn
for the year.
Just last month the company appointed software firm Micro
Focus' Kevin Loosemore as chairman designate to replace
Philip Rogerson.
Vacher - an alumnus of Columbia University, MIT, Stanford
University, and the London School of Economics - was previously
chief executive of Dynex Power Inc, where he led the
privatisation sale of the firm in March 2019.
Both appointments are at a time De La Rue faces disruptions
after Britain's Serious Fraud Office opened a criminal
investigation in July over "suspected corruption" in its
business in South Sudan.
The investigation is a setback for De La Rue, which last
year lost the 400-million pound contract for Britain's new blue
passports and has seen its stock tumble since May after the
profit warning, the CEO's departure and a one-off hit for
non-payment from Venezuela.
The company is realigning its operations to focus on two
businesses, Currency and Authentication, saying each required
different strategies. It said Ruth Euling will lead the Currency
business with Andrew Clint in-charge of Authentication.
London-listed De La Rue has designed about a third of the
world's banknotes in circulation and is the world's largest
commercial printer of passports.
(Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard
Orr)
