Shares in De La Rue were down on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the banknote printer issued an interim statement for the period since 25 September 2010.

De La Rue said that trading in the period and cash flow had been in line with its expectations.

Banknote production at the company is expected to be six billion in the group's full financial year. De La Rue said that it had seen no evidence that ongoing "production problems" at one of its plants had negatively impacted the rest of its business.

Earlier this week French firm Oberthur walked away from a takeover bid of De La Rue, after De La Rue refused to cooperate with the company.

Tim Cobbold, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of De La Rue, said, "My first month at De La Rue has confirmed the potential to build on the considerable strengths of the business by extending our customer base and improving both how we work and the service we deliver to our customers around the world. My immediate focus is to develop and begin to execute the detailed plans that will underpin the value strategy shareholders rightly look to the Board to now deliver. I shall provide a full update at the announcement of our preliminary results at the end of May."

By 10:35 shares in De La Rue were down 1.64 per cent on the FTSE 250 to 687.00 pence per share.

FTSE