Activist Crystal Amber takes stake in De La Rue

AIM-listed activist fund Crystal Amber has taken a 1.3% stake in banknote printer De La Rue, which is currently fighting the UK government's decision to hand over a contract to make the post-Brexit blue passports to a Franco-Dutch company.

The fund invests mostly in small and mid-cap UK equities where it identifies "opportunities to enhance long-term shareholder value through active engagement with companies".

De La Rue has been in the press a lot recently after Her Majesty's Passport Office chose Gemalto for the design and production of the new UK passport.

The Home Office said that changing contractors would save the UK taxpayer £120m, but the government has delayed its final decision on who will make the post-Brexit passports to allow De La Rue more time to challenge the plans to give the contract to its rival.

The government's deadline for reaching a decision has been extended by two weeks to 17 April.

A spokeswoman for De La Rue said earlier this month: "We confirm that we are taking the first steps towards initiating appeal proceedings against the provisional decision to award the British passport contract to a part state-owned Franco-Dutch company.

"Based on our knowledge of the market, it's our view that ours was the highest quality and technically most secure bid. We can accept that we weren't the cheapest, even if our tender represented a significant discount on the current price.”

De La Rue has worked closely with HMPO over the last nine years designing and producing the UK passport and its current 10-year contract, which expires in July 2019, has a total value of around £400m.

Hurricane Energy, Northgate, FairFX and Ocado are among Crystal Amber's ten largest holdings.

At 0955 BST, De La Rue shares were up 0.6% to 503p.