So, Netherlands-based investment group HHBV needs a bit more time to get the funding sorted out for its proposed acquisition of Roto Smeets (RSDB). Surprise! The saga involving the future ownership of both Smeets and Quebecor World Europe has been going on for over a year now, and it's turning into a tale with more twists than a Chubby Checker convention.

To summarise: back in July 2007 RSDB announced that it had agreed a deal valued at circa €240m to buy Quebecor World's euro ops. This was kicked into touch by RSDB shareholders in December, leaving the board with a considerable amount of egg on face. Quebecor World is in such dire straits that in January it has to file for Chapter 11 creditor protection and places its sole UK plant in Corby into administration a week later. By May a deal is back on and Quebecor announces it is selling the European wing to HHBV for €135m - a €100m haircut on the original valuation. At the same time, HHBV announces that it is going to buy Smeets too, and stick the businesses together as per Smeets' original consolidation plan. The HHBV/Quebecor Europe deal is concluded in July, and Quebecor gets €52m in cash. So that's real money that HHBV has come up with thus far. The offer price for Smeets is €40 a share, valuing the business at around €131m. More than 80% of shareholders said "ta very much" and now await their cheques. Again, that's a chunk of real money required, and this is the current hold-up.

However, these HHBV chaps are seemingly oblivious to the print industry's woeful track record when it comes to mega-mergers ("it cost us more than we thought and was more disruptive than we anticipated" Repeat ad infinitum), so in June they announce that by the way we're in talks with France's Groupe Maury Imprimeur too, about adding them to the party as well. This just gets better and better. As a recipe for financial obfuscation and the carrying forward of tax losses for years to come, it's looking like it will be hard to beat.

Now I'm curious to find out more about HHBV and its other investments, but information is thin on the ground, to say the least. I was beginning to think that HH could be an abbreviation for Howard Hughes-like reclusiveness. Apparently it has some other interests in energy, meat and steel, and focuses on sectors that can benefit from consolidation. Partners Hendrik van den Hombergh and Wim de Pundert feature in the Quote 500 list of the richest people in the Netherlands with fortunes of €181m and €200m respectively, which puts me in mind of the old joke: "How do you make a small fortune in print? Start with a large one".