The international investment bank, Goldman Sachs, has downgraded its rating on the Swiss food and drinks conglomerate, Nestle, from “outperform” to “in-line” on the back of forecasts that other stocks in the same sectors were set to return better flow in 2003.

“2003 is likely to be a year of consolidation for Nestle, with the group continuing to bed down recent acquisitions and seek to complete the Dreyers acquistion,” said Goldman analyst Mark Lynch.