The investment bank, Goldman Sachs, has reduced its recommendation on the French food and drinks group, Danone, from “in-line” to “underperform”.

“Following a 5% sector outperformance in 2002, we believe that this will be more difficult to sustain in 2003,” the bank said. “We see better value elsewhere and would suggest better performance might be gained from either Pernod Ricard or Unilever.”