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Christian Salvesen will have to act quickly to improve its performance if it wants to dampen takeover speculation, say analysts. In a downbeat trading statement last week the logistics giant admitted that there had been no improvement in its troubled Iberian transport business in the past two months, with volumes remaining lower than expected. It added that the business has not yet recovered as it had hoped, with the result that profit margins remain "under pressure". Despite this the company  expects to boost turnover by a record 7% year on year.

Chris Morgan, lead analyst in Datamonitor's logistics team, believes that Salvesen's recovery plan "now hangs in the balance", especially as "second-half results are set to be at the same level as in the first six months, which will come as a great disappointment to both the company itself and the markets". Salvesen is due to release its interim results for the six months to 30 September on Tuesday (5 December) it promises to disclose more information then.

Morgan believes one of the keys to success for Salvesen will be developing its business in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific: "This needs to be sooner rather than later in order to improve its financial performance and perceptions if the company wants to avoid speculation over a possible takeover from increasing."