The world's largest banknote printer blamed the profit warning on delays to "a number of significant orders which had been expected and planned for production in the second half of the current financial year".

De La Rue said that it's financial results for the current year, which were expected to include earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of £82m would now be "similar to those for 2011/12" when earnings came in at £63m.

Chief executive Tim Cobbold told the Financial Times that "the timing of particular orders is sometimes difficult to predict".

Shareholders were quick to react to the 23% cut in the firm's guidance, with 10% initially wiped off De La Rue's shares before they recovered to close 5.5% down. At the time of writing, De La Rue's share price was £10.08, down 5.3% on Monday.

De La Rue said it was confident the delayed contracts would be received for shipment in 2013/14 and would therefore not adversely impact its plan to achieve an operating profit in excess of £100m in 2013/14.

Meanwhile, the company's first half sales and operating profit were up, rising 3% to £245m and 5% to £33m respectively. Banknote print volumes were also up 4% at 2.9bn notes, although banknote paper volumes declined 15% to 4,500 tonnes.