Spanish plate manufacturer Ipagsa Industrial is selling its prepress business - but not its Barcelona manufacturing facilities - to Agfa Graphics.

Instead Agfa - which last week announced a deal to source plates from Chinese plate manufacturer Lucky HuaGuang Graphics - says the plate volumes will come from Agfa plants and "partly procured from third party suppliers". It expects the acquisition will contribute up to 30 million Euros to Agfa's revenue in 2019 with "double digit EBITDA".

Agfa Graphics president Stefaan Vanhooren describes the acquisition as "another step in our strategy for profitable growth.

"Next to a significant increase of our prepress top line, the acquisition will also help Agfa achieving its EBITDA target of ten per cent in average over the next few years."

Ipagsa's team will continue to operate under its own brand as a separate entity, managed by current owner Lorenzo Ferrari.

Ferrari says the deal will help Agfa address price sensitive regions and segments of the global printing market, making a clear distinction with the premium segment served by Agfa Graphics.

Privately-owned Ipagsa was founded in 1985, with headquarters in Rubí, Barcelona and a branch in Hong Kong. It claims to export more than 80 per cent of its turnover to about 70 countries.