Today's Sunday Times put a 520m price tag on deal. Two private equity companies had also been involved in the bidding, with each understood to have submitted offers of around 500m.

Astron's consolidated 2004 group accounts including Edotech have not been filed yet, so the multiple on the deal is not known.

Donnelley is one of the world's largest print groups. It merged with Moore Wallace at the beginning of last year and the combined entity has a number of operations across Europe. Donnelley's UK plants include the giant Flaxby Moor directories plant and a London-based financial printing operation.

Its turnover in 2004, which  included a 10 month contribution from Moore, was 3.8bn ($7.2bn).