Kevin Loosemore has taken up the position as of today (2 September) and has also become a non-executive director of the Basingstoke-headquartered security printer.
Current chairman Philip Rogerson will retire as chairman and as a non-executive director on 1 October, with Loosemore succeeding him as chairman on his retirement.
Rogerson has served on De La Rue’s board since March 2012 and as chairman since July 2012. He had been re-elected at the company’s AGM in July with a majority of 91.17% of votes cast, despite calls by activist investor Crystal Amber that he should be replaced.
Loosemore’s appointment marks his return to De La Rue: he previously served as managing director of the firm’s Card Systems division between 1997 and 1999, leaving after the division was sold to French company Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire in October 1999.
He is currently chairman of multinational software business Micro Focus International and a non-executive director of accountancy software provider Iris Software Group.
Senior independent director Andy Stevens said: “Philip has provided strong leadership to the board during the past seven years. As chairman, he has overseen considerable strategic change within the company and has steered it through a number of successes and challenges.
“Philip has had a long and distinguished career and on behalf of the rest of the board and all our employees, I thank him for his dedication and commitment to the company and wish him well in his retirement.
“The other members of the board and I are delighted that Kevin has agreed to succeed Philip. De La Rue will benefit enormously from his experience.”
Embattled De La Rue has issued three profit warnings in the space of 15 months and lost the flagship UK passport contract. It was also forced to make an £18.1m provision for a bad debt relating to a Venezuelan customer that is currently unable to pay its bill while in July the SFO launched a probe into its activities in South Sudan.
The company’s share price has more than halved over the past year and slipped by 2% to 210p in early trading this morning. It has since rallied to 217p at the time of writing.
