Edinburgh-based aviation logistics and news distribution company John Menzies said in a trading update that it expects “to be able to make a firm announcement” on splitting the company in two by the time of its full year results in March 2018.

Menzies said in August it terminated merger talks between its distribution business and courier firm DX Group.

“The board were disappointed not to be able to conclude the combination of our distribution division with DX (Group) plc, a deal that had strong strategic logic,” said Menzies.

“Rothschild has been appointed to assist the board in undertaking a strategic review of the distribution division with the objective of assessing the optimum route to split the group and create two strong focused players in their respective markets.

“We expect to be able to make a firm announcement on the process to be followed by the time of our full year results in March 2018.”

On current trading, Menzies said: “The group has continued to trade well since the half year and the board is confident of meeting its full year expectations.

“Overall trading at Menzies Aviation is in line.

“Positive underlying trading across the network has been tempered by the impact of one off events such as Hurricane Irma, particularly in St Maarten where operations will be impacted into 2018, and airline failures within the EMEA region.

“We are pleased with the integration of the ASIG business acquired on 1 February 2017 and we are now moving from stabilisation to progress.

“Milestones are being met and we are confident that the full year synergy target will be exceeded.

“Commercially the pipeline of opportunities is strong and we look forward to 2018 with confidence.”