- Edi Truell may offer higher bid than Atlas Holdings
- Atlas's offer is 16% premium to DLAR's Monday close
- DLAR shares surge 17%
April 15 (Reuters) - British financier Edi Truell may be willing to offer 132.17 pence a share to buy De La Rue, Sky News reported on Tuesday, after the banknote printer recommended a 130 pence per share deal by U.S. buyout firm Atlas Holdings.
Truell declined to comment on the Sky News report, and De La Rue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Atlas's all-cash deal was at a 16% premium to De La Rue's closing price on Monday, and valued the British company at 263 million pounds ($347.1 million). De La Rue's board recommended it as "fair and reasonable".
The company's shares soared nearly 17% to 131 pence by 0800 GMT.
De La Rue, which printed the new King Charles currency notes in the UK, had in January received a 125 pence a share takeover proposal from a consortium of Truell's companies and launched a formal sale process a few weeks later.
Its currency unit and prints banknotes, develops security features such as colour-shifting inks to prevent counterfeiting, and provides polymer substrate for more durable and environment-friendly banknotes.
($1 = 0.7577 pounds)
Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi and Raechel Thankam Job, additional reporting by Anandita Mehrotra in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Joe Bavier
Source: Reuters