UK company De La Rue says it will not appeal decision to have blue passports made in France

Banknote printer previously said it had made the 'highest quality and technically most secure bid'

The contract in question is to make blue British passports after Brexit (Reuters)

UK firm De La Rue has announced it will not appeal the government’s decision to award the contract for producing British passports to an Amsterdam-based company.

Shares in the group dropped more than 8 per cent at the open, after it revealed its failed bid for the contract had cost it millions.

De La Rue initially asked the Home Office for an extension to the deadline for awarding the contract to make the post-Brexit blue passport after it emerged the frontrunner for the job was Gemalto, a Franco-Dutch firm.

Earlier this month the group said it had taken “the first steps towards initiating appeal proceedings against the provisional decision to award the British passport contract to a part state-owned Franco-Dutch company”.

“Based on our knowledge of the market, it’s our view that ours was the highest quality and technically most secure bid,” a spokesperson for the British firm said at the time.

On Wednesday, however, De La Rue said it would not proceed with its appeal, “having considered all options”.

The company said it will continue to fulfil its existing contract and assist with transition to the new supplier and is therefore expecting no impact on the group's performance in the next 18 months.

The group also provided a trading update and said its full-year revenue is expected to increase by around 6 per cent, although operating profit took a hit of £4m relating to bid costs linked to the UK passport tender and shipment delays.