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Creditor protection in the US and Canada is a long and drawn-out process, which can last up to 18 months and may well end in a revitalised Quebecor World being refloated on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchange.

In essence the filing for protection has not changed the situation on the ground, it has simply bought time. To survive, Quebecor World needs to raise funds to solve its liquidity crisis. These funds will either come from a financier, or a sell-off of some of its divisions.

Paul Holohan, chief executive of Richmond Capital Partners, said: “There would be very few world players capable of purchasing the whole business, or actually wishing to take on the complete facility. A break-up therefore remains the more likely of these options.”

Nick Hood, an insolvency specialist executive chairman of Begbies Global Network, said that the decision not to put its European division into creditor protection may be part of a strategy to sell it off.

“Its European subsidies may not have gone into insolvency so as not to damage their value. Shareholders have the ability to control the future of the divisions through their shareholdings,” he said.

However, Nick Mockett of Europa Partners warned: “What happens to the Euro-pean operations will depend on the profile of the cash flows for the group. They may need to act quickly if Quebecor World’s European Division can’t be supported by the funding. Perhaps it will just be liquidated, as they don’t appear to have found any buyers.”