US-based Donnelley has already signed an agreement to buy Baring CEF Investments' 56.2% stake in the Polish outfit  at 5.55 per share, and other shareholders are expected to follow suit and accept the tender offer soon.

"Adding Poligrafia's respected capabilities to our platform will increase the flexibility and scale of our already strong Central European operations," said chief executive Mark Angelson.

With sales of 30.1m Poligrafia, which has two production sites, is Poland's third largest web printer. The deal follows Donnelley's purchase of US-based printer Adplex-Rhodes and the release of strong second quarter results.

Sales for the group rose 4.8% year on year to 1.1bn. Sales for its Integrated Print Communications sector, which for the last 11 days of the quarter included Astron, rose 5.2% on the same period last year to 301m.

Story by Darryl Danielli