Printer and publisher PMP has blocked its ticket and label company suitor from conducting due diligence because of concerns about its ability to fund a takeover.

Ticketing and labelling group TMA made a $250 million takeover offer for PMP in April, and had been conducting a restricted due diligence process at the permission of PMP.

PMP said on Thursday its board was not satisfied that TMA had demonstrated the funding capacity PMP required to grant access for further due diligence.

“As a result, PMP will not allow further access to due diligence until such time that the requested proof of funding capacity is provided,” it said.

TMA has offered between 68 cents and 78 cents for each PMP share, a high premium to its share price of 33 cents on Thursday.

PMP shares rose as high as 62 cents on the day the bid was revealed in April but have since retreated.

PMP’s suspicion around funding could be related to TMA’s smaller financial stature than PMP.

TMA delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in 2011.

PMP provides printing services for companies such as Australian Women’s Weekly publisher ACP Magazines.

It has cut its earnings guidance and flagged redundancies this year, having been hit by the decline in revenues affecting the print media industry generally.

On Thursday PMP confirmed it expected earnings before interest and tax (before significant items) for the year to June 30 to be within a range of $30 million to $33 million.

Net debt was $145 million at June 30, lower than its earlier guidance of $150 million to $155 million.

The company has been working on a transformation of its Australian printing operations and said it was finalising a detailed implementation plan.

Details of the changes are likely to be announced when PMP releases its finalised full year results in August.