According to Bloomberg, the merger would require both press manufacturers to shed some assets where the businesses overlap, which would help them gain much-needed backing from the antitrust authorities.

Otherwise, the merger would result in a body that has a 65 per cent market share of the press sector.

The latest news seems to support claims that the new company would need to dispose of the manroland sheetfed manufacturing site in Offenbach, which currently employs 2500 people.

It all follows German reports which claimed that Heidelberg and manroland had appointed Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank respectively to advise on the potential merger.

Rumours of a merger between the press manufacturers come at a time when Heidelberg warned that it does not expect to make a profit in the current 2009/10 financial year.

This followed on from the publication of its first-quarter results in which it posted a €63 million ($A107m) operating loss.

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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