Dave Lewis is leaving Tesco in much better shape. COVID-19 could well do the same Tesco is quite rightly mindful not to look at COVID-19 as a positive but away from the personal suffering, it seems likely that the group and Big 4 UK food retailers will exit the crisis in a stronger position than they entered. Reflecting on his last (near) 6 years in charge, Dave Lewis, the outgoing CEO told a story of progressively removing reasons to shop elsewhere (notably Aldi) and the crisis seems to have reinforced that story. We think the business he leaves is in a much better position with sustainable cash generation the result. At some point, the shares will catch up. An extraordinary period for trading but Q1 is history you wouldn''t extrapolate from In what was clearly quite an extraordinary Q1, it doesn''t seem to matter that Tesco''s UK LFL was a little under expectation (8.7% versus 10.5% consensus) when other bits of the business were much better (notably Booker at +0.6% versus -14.4% consensus). Further, the outlook of flattish retail profit was reiterated. We still think that sounds cautious but having been top of consensus, we trim our retail EBIT forecast 5%. However, we still have 7% growth in retail profit year on year. A cautious message on the bank but we don''t think that exciting for the shares The message on the Bank was much more cautious; against us and consensus pencilling in a GBP15m loss this year, the new guide is a loss of GBP175-200m. Accordingly, there''s a reasonably large cut to consensus to come (c7% to EBIT at the mid-range). However, we''re minded not to base a thesis on 2020/21 profit, particularly as IFRS-9 creates volatility in bank earnings. Our forecasts for 2021/22 are in contrast little changed, the small cut reflecting minor revisions for the bank (note we value it on P/TBV so there''s little impact on our group TP). Tesco doesn''t seem to be lining up for a fight on price - a positive for all Heading into the rest...