Nestlé faces greater pressure to speed up change after activist investor Third Point stepped up its criticism of the world’s largest food company.

The New York-based hedge fund sent a letter to Nestlé’s board and published a presentation online on Sunday calling for more urgent action and recommending steps it says could result in Nestlé doubling its earnings per share by 2022.

The letter and presentation, published on a new Third Point website, come a year after the firm, run by billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, took a roughly $3 billion stake in the maker of KitKat bars and Perrier water.

The letter had very limited immediate impact on Nestlé shares, which were up 0.2 per cent at 1115 GMT yesterday, though they were outperforming the broader European stock market, which was down 0.8 per cent.

Analysts said they shared many of Loeb’s concerns about Nestlé and agreed with some of his prescriptions. His ideas include selling its 23 per cent stake in L’Oréal and using the proceeds for M&A or share buybacks, reorganising into three internal units and divesting businesses that make up to 15 per cent of sales.

They questioned, however, whether the New York investor’s confrontational style would win points with one of Europe’s biggest companies, with a reputation for conservatism.