The underlying logic is undeniable with the Evolution’s securities business bolstering Investec’s existing operation and allowing for cost savings while Williams de Broe would integrate with Rensburg increasing its geographical footprint, increasing the AuM from $15bn to $21bn, while allowing cost savings to be accessed.

Evolution is now in play and the announcements seen over the past two days could smoke out additional interest.

It is understood that the discussions arose following contact between the institutions relating to the 24% stake in the broker bought by Sean Quinn, the founder of the Quinn Group.

NCB declined to comment. Michael Cullen, chief executive of Investec Ireland, said he would not comment on specific deals. “We are on record [as saying] that we are interested in expanding our footprint in Ireland,” he said. “It is fair to say we have been in discussions with a number of entities over the past six months.”

The entire spectrum of innovative products and services. Developed, produced, supplied, installed and serviced by Océ professionals.

n Cautious Tone – Reiterating what we have heard across the sector, management are cautious on the UK consumer saying they expect the ‘Consumer spending to remain subdued for a considerable period of time.’ This cautious tone is line with peers Greene King (BUY), JD Wetherspoons (SELL) and Mitchells and Butlers (BUY) who have all recently reported declining LFLs.

n Disposals – Enterprise have disposed of 335 pubs with net proceeds of £69m year to date. Enterprise expects to dispose of 500 pubs for the full year generating a total of £110m. There is no guidance for the expected rate of disposals in FY12. The sale and leaseback programme has been largely completed having raised £247m from the sale of 176 properties at an average rental yield of 6.5%.

n EV/EBITDA remains high – The potential for a re-rating of the equity is a slow burn, given that EBITDA continues to fall leaving Debt/EBITDA stubbornly high. The CY11 EV/EBITDA of 8.4x is high, but over time as the debt burden eases and EBITDA stabilises, we think that focus will be drawn to the attractive CY12 PE of 1.8x and FCF yield of 49.6%.

Accordingly, Ocado is not some new investment paradigm to us. Ocado is not Asos (ASC^, No Recommendation at 2063p) or the possibly soon to be listed The Hut! Ocado has it all to do to prove that it can be profitable, cash generative and high returning but if it ever does reach this point that will be some years off. We continue, therefore, to believe that Ocado stock does not merit the stratospheric multiples that it has been trading on (nor do we feel that the incumbent supermarkets’ on-line activities should be accorded such cloud high multiples) and still trades on. And this is the nub of the issue really; Ocado should be much more closely valued on a par with its grocery peers and if it ever does de-couple its returns we can then with some substance, empirical evidence and resolve talk about rating premia and expansion. Until then, we reiterate our SELL stance.