Allen McGuire & Partners, the Dublin-based company which operates three investment funds backed by American pension funds, has bought the printing activities of the Aspen Group in Britain for £10.5 million sterling (£12.3 million).

The print business being bought by Allen McGuire had sales of £30 million and operating profits of £1.1 million sterling in the year to last December when it had adjusted net assets of £13.8 million sterling.

The businesses being bought include: Pensord Press in Gwent, short-run magazine printing; Heanor Gate Printing in Derbyshire, promotional printers; Aspen Pre-Print in Gloucestershire, promotional printers; and ACT Print Management in Wolverhampton, print brokers and print managers.

A spokesperson for Allen McGuire said the group was into its third investment fund and that typically investments were held for a minimum period of 10 years. She declined to go into detail on the group's investments.