An IPO was still on the agenda and was seen by the owners as the preferred option, MAN Roland spokesman, Thomas Hauser, was quoted as saying. The reason for postponing the IPO is likely the global credit crunch, which has seen a huge swathe of IPOs put on the back burner, with many more to be postponed in the months ahead.

MAN Roland is 65 perc ent owned by Allianz SE's Allianz Capital Partners, with the remaining 35 per cent held by MAN AG. It is just over two years since MAN AG sold 65 per cent of MAN Roland to Allianz, with MAN Roland turning in a significant profit in both years since independence, in contrast to its performance as part of the MAN Group. When the deal went through the company stated that an IPO was its aim.

MAN Roland operates out of Offenbach, Mainhausen, Augsburg and Plauen in Germany. It employs a staff of almost 9000 and has annual sales of almost €2bn, with an export share of 84 per cent. Web and sheetfed offset presses as well as digital printing systems are the major product lines for publishing, commercial, and packaging printing. The field of business ranges from small-format sheetfed presses to production systems for newspaper printing in runs of millions.

MAN Roland is the world's biggest web press manufacturer, and dominates the market here in Australia, with PMP alone signing a $124m order for commercial webs at the last drupa. Its sheetfed business vies for number two position with Komori in the B1 and B2 sectors.

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