A spokesman for Nipson said that the decrease was down to the "deterioration" of the market and was not a reflection on the company.

"There is no disappointment at all as Nipson has raised all the money it needed," he said. "The market goes in cycles and a lot of flotations have been pulled."

Just over 14m shares were placed at a price of 70p per share. Nipson plans to use the proceeds to fund additional sales channels, research and development and repay debts. See earlier story.

Nipson intends to grow its market in the US and Asia Pacific. Its R&D spend, which last year was 3m, will be used to improve print quality and productivity of its machines and reducing operating costs.

Last year it made a loss of 500,000 on sales of 29.8m.

Story by Philip Chadwick