Nevertheless, De La Rue’s problems do seem to center on its banknote printing business, where revenues have plunged 29.5%. So if this isn’t due to declining use of cash, what is causing it?
But by 2015, the company’s position was significantly worse. Revenue and profits remained much where they had been in 2011, but net debt had soared from £31.2m in 2011 to £111m , and the company had a pension deficit of nearly a quarter of a billion pounds. Continually paying dividends had taken its toll, too: , shareholder’s equity had fallen to negative £155m .
At first, Sutherland’s plan showed signs of working. De La Rue’s revenues and profits rose slightly in 2016 and 2017. But it wasn’t enough to make a material dent in its balance sheet insolvency, let alone enable it to reduce its pension liability. And executing the plan was costly. By 2017, net debtIn 2018, the company changed the way it calculated the inflation indexing of its pension fund liabilities, which brought it a windfall profit improvement of some £80m .