The chief executive of Sainsbury's was filmed singing "We're in the Money" hours after announcing that the supermarket he runs would buy rival Asda, boosting his company's value by £860m.
CEO Mike Coupe was waiting in a studio when cameras caught him singing the song from the musical "42nd Street" in footage that was later released by British broadcaster ITV.
"We're in the money, the sky is sunny. Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along," he sings before sipping his coffee.
The Asda deal has already made Coupe significantly richer, with his 1.28 million shares going up in value by £500,000 following the announcement.
Coupe apologised, saying he was sorry if anyone was offended.
"This was an unguarded moment trying to compose myself before a TV interview. It was an unfortunate choice of song, from the musical "42nd Street" which I saw last year," he said in a statement emailed by Sainsbury's.
Sainsbury's said yesterday it would buy Asda, owned by Walmart for around £7.3bn, in a bold attempt to overtake long-time leader Tesco as Britain's biggest supermarket group by market share.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury's and Asda had the slowest sales of the "big four" UK supermarket chains in the 12 weeks to April 22, market data showed today.
Sales at the UK's second biggest supermarket group ranked Sainsbury's rose 0.2%, while Asda, owned by Walmart, saw growth of 1.4%, Kantar Worldpanel said.
Current UK market leader Tesco had growth of 2.1% while sales at Morrisons were up 2.2%.
