July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG rose to its highest price in six weeks in Frankfurt trading after a financial newsletter reported the world’s largest maker of printing presses is in talks to merge with a competitor.

The company is negotiating with closely held Manroland AG, the second largest printing-press manufacturer, Platow Brief reported after the stock exchange closed July 24. The newsletter didn’t say where it obtained the information.

Allianz SE is pressing both companies to merge in order to protect its investments, the newsletter said. The German insurer owns 12 percent stake in Heidelberger Druck and 65 percent of Manroland, according to the company. Matthias Hartung, a spokesman for Heidelberger Druck, Manroland spokesman Thomas Hauser and Allianz spokesman Michael Matern declined to comment.

Manroland is the world’s largest maker of web offset presses used by newspapers. Heidelberger Druck sold its web offset unit five years ago, disposing of a division with 2,000 employees and about 10 percent of company revenue.

Sales at Heidelberger Druck fell 18 percent to about 3 billion euros (4.3 billion) last year, and the company posted a loss of almost 249 million euros. Offenbach, Germany-based Manroland had sales of almost 1.7 billion euros last year.

Heidelberger Druck rose as much as 30 cents, or 6.5 percent, to 4.93 euros, and traded at that level as of 3:50 p.m. in Frankfurt. The stock has lost more than half its value in a year, giving Heidelberger Druck a market capitalization of about 382 million euros.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mariajose Vera in Munich at mvera1@bloomberg.net; Joseph Mapother in Frankfurt at jmapother1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 27, 2009 09:55 EDT