Any other business – 20/09
Market commentators were musing yesterday on the coincidence that Nomura downgraded supermarket Tesco from a ‘buy’ rating to ‘neutral’, just a day after the food superstore ended the brokership relationship between the pair. While Nomura insisted to The Capitalist yesterday that the brokerage was a completely separate part of the firm and the incidents were unrelated, it wouldn’t comment on the irony that the analyst who downgraded supermarket giant Tesco had joined the team to replace well known food retail analyst Nick Coulter. Coulter left Nomura a couple of months ago, and has now joined the investor relations department of which company? You’ve guessed it – Tesco. Every little coincidence helps.