Bowne London handled the printing of Orange's offer prospectuses as the mobile phone company formally started its flotation procedure this week.


The 30pp-plus prospectuses were four colours on the cover and two inside. Over 500,000 investors were reported to have expressed an interest in the shares.


Bowne is also printing other marketing material for Orange customers, including question and answer forms.


Bowne told PrintWeek that it would be able to disclose more details in a few weeks when all printing regarding Orange's flotation will be complete.


Orange, which includes the UK's third biggest mobile phone group of the same name, this week pitched its valuation
at 35bn-41bn, approximately 20% below the levels
estimated by city analysts. This was to ensure that its flotation would succeed in tough markets.


Orange is expected to embark on a spree of acquisitions once it has floated. This would create further large-scale financial mailings for financial printing groups.


Bowne handles financial and commercial printing from its UK base in London EC2. The group claims to be the world's largest financial printer and its headquarters are in New York City.


Story by Jeremy Allen