Quebecor Worlds next acquisition target could be a European printer, president and chief executive Charles Cavell revealed at the companys AGM.


Cavell said the group was studying 15 prospects in Europe, North America and South America. He did not give any further details on the groups targets.


Quebecor Europes executive vice-president of operations John Dickin also declined to comment further.


Cavell told Quebecor Worlds AGM that the groups acquisition of World Color 18 months ago, which created the worlds largest commercial printing firm, "wont be our last".


Last month, the group bought a 75% stake in So Paulo book printer Grafica Melhoramentos for 11m ($16m). It will soon open another Brazilian printing plant in Recife.


But following Cavells statement, reports in the US claimed that the group planned to close a former World Color facility in Salem, Illinois, with the loss of almost 900 jobs.


The Illinois Department of Employment Security
said Quebecor World had informed it of plans to shut the 25-year-old plant, which prints Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, on 2 June.


At the AGM, chief financial officer Christian Paupe said the group was back to its pre-acquisition capital structure.
It has also paid back more than 700m of bank borrowings used for the World Color buy.


Quebecor World em-ploys more than 43,000 people at 160 operations in 16 countries. It has annual sales of 4.5bn.


Story by Gordon Carson