Last checked at 31 Mar 2020 07:00
The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
31 March 2020
DE LA RUE PLC
TRADING UPDATE
De La Rue plc (LSE: DLAR) ("De La Rue", the "Group" or the "Company") today announces a post period end trading update for the financial year ended 27 March 2020.
Current trading
The Board expects De La Rue adjusted operating profit for financial year (FY) 2019/20 to be between £20m and £25m, as previously guided.
The Group has operated within its banking covenants for FY 2019/20, including the net debt/EBITDA covenant of ≤3.0 times and expects net debt/EBITDA at the financial year end to be between 2.0 and 2.4 times, a reduction on the 2.72 times ratio at half year 2019/20.
Net debt at the end of FY 2019/20 is expected to be approximately £105m and includes full payment of the annual pension contribution, down from £170.7m at half year 2019/20. This allows the Company to maintain a good level of liquidity headroom under its £275m revolving credit facility, which expires in December 2021.
The Group is progressing with its Turnaround Plan announced on 25 February 2020.
The Company is monitoring developments related to COVID-19, and actively taking steps to protect its employees in line with guidance from governments. At present, it is too early to quantify the potential impact on FY 2020/21.
Enquiries:
De La Rue plc +44 (0)1256 605322/ + 44 (0)7900 165194
Clive Vacher CEO
Rob Harding Interim CFO
Paul Sharma Head of Investor Relations
Brunswick Group LLP +44 (0)207 404 5959
Stuart Donnelly/Imran Jina
The person responsible for the release of this announcement on behalf of De La Rue is Jane Hyde (General Counsel and Company Secretary).
Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements
This announcement includes statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "estimates", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "goal", "target", "aim", "may", "will", "would", "could" or "should" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and include statements regarding the intentions, beliefs or current expectations of the directors, De La Rue or the Group concerning, amongst other things, the results of operations, profitability, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth and strategies of De La Rue and the industry in which it operates.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may be beyond De La Rue's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The Group's actual results of operations, profitability, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth and/or strategy and the development of the industry in which it operates may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement. In addition, even if the results of operations, profitability, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth and/or strategy of the Group and the development of the industry in which it operates are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.
Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations, De La Rue does not undertake any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.