Security services firm Chubb has said that full-year profits will be well below target.
The 200-year old firm, which revealed a bid approach for it recently, said it was suffering from the economic consequences of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus in Asia and a steep drop in spending on refurbishments by hotels in the United States.
Chubb, which supplies electronic security and fire prevention systems as well as security guards and monitoring services, said sales in Asia were down around 6 per cent in the first four months of the year.
Chubb shares, which jumped to a three month high of 99p after confirming a bid approach last week, dropped 10 per cent in early trading.
Later, they had recovered to stand down 3.7 per cent at 79p, valuing the world's third-biggest security services firm at around £654 million sterling.
Industry sources say Chubb is being stalked by US industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp (UTC).Analysts had been expecting UTC to bid 90-100 pence per share, or 745-830 million pounds for Chubb.