De La Rue to appeal British government?s new passport contract
A copy of the proposed blue British passport next to the current red design | Andy Rain/EPA

British company De La Rue dropped its plans Wednesday to appeal against the British government's decision to select a Franco-Dutch firm to produce the country's blue passports post Brexit.

The current maroon EU passport became a hated symbol for many enthusiastic Brexiteers and the U.K. government announced in December that post-Brexit, the country would revert to blue-colored travel documents (albeit a lighter shade than the navy blue passports Britain had previously).

The decision to award the contract for the new passports to a non-British company created an outcry among MPs, but the government insisted it was pursuing value for money for the taxpayer.

De La Rue had said that it would appeal the decision, arguing that it offered the highest quality bid but in a statement Wednesday it said that "having considered all options" it decided against taking action. It also revealed the bid had cost £4 million.

Not winning the £490 million contract will affect the company's underlying operating profit, which is now expected to be "in the low to mid £60 million range" for the financial year that ended on March 31. Just a few weeks before, the company had said it expected revenue more than £10 million higher.

The lower revenue is expected due to "the write off of the £4m bid costs related to the UK passport tender and delays in the shipment of certain contracts in the last week of the period," the company said.

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