The day after the new chief executive of De La Rue unveiled his turnaround strategy for one of London’s oldest listed companies, the shares were back in the red. So much for the banknote printer’s rally — by a fifth — after the plans were announced alongside trading update on Tuesday. Last night the shares closed down 4½p, or 3.1 per cent, at 143p.
It was, perhaps, a salutary lesson Clive Vacher, 49, who was parachuted in as chief executive in October to rebuild investor confidence and the bombed-out share price. The former boss of Dynex Power is an industrials expert who has built a reputation for turnarounds, but here he is facing his most public, and therefore most fickle and unforgiving, job.
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