The group's share price hit a year high of 132.5p in February, but has been on the slide for the past two months.

The current market capitalisation of the business is 148m.

"Their AGM statement [in April] was rather cautious. It was more 'jam tomorrow'," noted one City source. "Communisis has a history of trying to treat normal costs as exceptionals, and exiting those European businesses has involved some tricky costs. I think over the years investors have become a little tired of it. All of that suggests that Communisis is a business that shouldn't command a high rating and now it doesn't."

Exceptional restructuring and disposal costs resulted in Communisis making a 12.8m pre-tax loss on sales of 269.7m last year.

Shares in the group had recovered slightly to 102.5p as PrintWeek went to press.