Walker said his background in mergers and acquisitions he set up deals while at Swedish industrial and decorative coatings business Becker Group and has established his own venture capital company meant it would be foolish for me not to be looking.

Although creating shareholder value would remain Inveresks major aim, Walker said the groups strong first half of the year enabled it to look around.

Inveresk turned last years 12m interim pre-tax loss, mainly due to the closure of operations, into a 1.6m profit this year.