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By Shashwat Awasthi and Chandini Monnappa
(Reuters) -British banknote printer De La Rue on Tuesday backed a $347 million takeover bid by U.S. buyout firm Atlas Holdings, offering a 16% premium over Monday's closing price, and snubbed a higher, preliminary offer from financier Edi Truell.
Atlas has proposed an all-cash 130 pence-per-share offer for De La Rue, which values the company at 263 million pounds ($347.1 million).
De La Rue's shares soared as much as 18.8% to 133 pence in Tuesday morning trading.
Speaking to Reuters, De La Rue CEO Clive Vacher said Atlas had worked with the firm's management and was supportive of its current business strategies.
"The Atlas offer is the best option as it ensures the continuity of the De La Rue brand," Vacher said, after the deal was announced earlier on Tuesday. The transaction is expected to be completed in the summer, he said.
De La Rue said that Truell's offer of 132.17 pence a share was conditional on the completion of the sale of the company's authentication unit and financing arrangements.
The absence of committed financing, and uncertainty over the deal's structure and pension agreements, led De La Rue to back the Atlas offer, the British company said.
Sky News had earlier reported some details of Truell's bid. Truell declined to comment on the report.
De La Rue, printer of the new King Charles currency notes in the UK, received a 125 pence a share takeover proposal in January from a consortium of Truell's companies. It launched a formal sale process a few weeks later.
($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, Joe Bavier and Rachna Uppal)
