According to The Guardian's City column, The Speculator, on Monday (9 January), the share performance graph of the listed print group "looks horrible but, at close to 300p, the company is priced at only 1.4 times the value of its assets".

It went on to say that the investment bank had placed St Ives at the top of its rankings for potential PE targets. But print followers in the City questioned the logic behind the tip.

One source said that while St Ives had a "great balance sheet" and its shares were cheap, "it looks a bit hard to grow it". Another industry-watcher agreed. "It probably has attributes to suggest it would work as a PE play," he said, "but where is the value growth story?"

Shares in St Ives were trading at 317.5p as PrintWeek closed.