Mystery deepens over sale of De La Rue subsidiaries

De La Rue [Photo: Courtesy]

The Government has not acquired a single share in local subsidiaries of British currency printing firm De La Rue despite several budgetary allocations, it has emerged.

Filings at the Registrar of Companies seen by The Standard indicate that the Government has no shareholding in De La Rue Currency and Security Print Ltd (trading) and De La Rue Kenya EPZ Ltd (dormant) despite public pronouncements by the National Treasury that it has been making regular payments for the shares.

Shareholding information on the two subsidiaries indicates that their nominal value was Sh25.04 million as at October last year.

But the National Treasury said that it had been making payments, being part of the five million pounds (about Sh666.8 million) it would take to acquire shareholding in the two firms.

Responding to our queries late yesterday, De La Rue Group Commercial Director Douglas Benham said the delays effecting the ownership structure were occasioned by technicalities.

“Treasury has paid, but two things are yet to be done. Treasury is supposed to nominate two directors to our board and give tax approvals,” said Mr Banham.

De La Rue EPZ shareholding is held by Thomas De La Rue AG domiciled in Switzerland, which owns nine shares, and British De La Rue Holdings Plc whith one share.

“The nominal share capital of the company is Sh40,000 divided into 2,000 shares of Sh20 each registered on January 17, 2011,” said Jemimah Mungai from the office of the Registrar of Companies.

Ordinary shares

The second local affiliate, De La Rue Security Print Ltd, is owned by Kenneth Hamish/Wooler Keith, a Kenyan with one share, De La Rue Holdings with one share, and Thomas De La Rue AG with 49,999 shares.

“The nominal share capital of the company is Sh25 million divided into 1.2 million ordinary shares and one non-voting, non-participant non-cumulative redeemable preference share of Sh20 each,” said Mungai.

The revelations show that despite making several budgetary allocations, the Government has not bought a single share in the companies yet, which could mean that the transaction is being held up for unknown reasons.

Finance Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge had not responded to our questions or replied to our text messages by the time of going to press. However, in CS Rotich’s second mini budget last year, the Government set aside an additional Sh892 million to acquire assets, including a majority stake in De la Rue, and inject capital into strategic State-owned entities.

“Delivery unit, equity acquisition in De La Rue. Key Output; Majority stake bought in strategic foreign financial institution,” read part of the supplementary budget.