Good morning: Pre-tax profits at Tesco fell almost 20 per cent to £825 million in the 12 months to the end of February as the supermarket group handed back £585 million of business rates relief granted at the height of the Covid-19 crisis.
Operating profit over the period fell 21.3 per cent to £1.73 billion, down from £2.2 billion, as revenue slipped a fraction to £57.9 billion.
Sales in the group’s core UK market rose 8.8 per cent to £48.8 billion as online sales rose 77 per cent to £6.3 billion. The number of weekly delivery slots doubled over the year to 1.5 million. Tesco claimed it had increased UK market share “gaining customers from all key competitors”.
The retailer said it expected to see a strong improvement in profitability in the current financial despite volatile trading conditions, but nevertheless the final dividend was held at 5.95p.
Ken Murphy, who joined as chief executive in September, said: “While the pandemic is not yet over, we’re well-placed to build on the momentum in our business.”
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Budget airline easyJet has told investors that it forecasts first-half losses to be slightly smaller than expected at between £690 million and £730 million. Analysts had expected losses of around £750 million. The airline always makes a loss in the first half of the year. Total cash burn during the second quarter was £470 million, also better than previous guidance.
Passenger numbers for the first half dropped by 89 per cent to 4.1 million as capacity levels fell to 6.4 million seats, just 14 per cent of level in the first half of 2019. Group revenue fell by 90 per cent to £235 million.
Johan Lundgren, the chief executive, said: “We remain well-positioned for the recovery this summer and beyond.”
Elsewhere this morning:
• British Land has warned that it has managed to collect just over half of the retail rent due to be paid by tenants in March. Across the property giant 76 per cent of rent has been paid, with 96 per cent of office rents collected and 54 per cent of retail rents. The FTSE 100 company said it “expects this to improve over coming weeks in line with previous quarters”. Great Portland has also updated investors on rent collections this morning.
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• Others updating this morning include the recruitment group Robert Walters and the podcast group (and stock market darling) Audioboom.
The US earnings season kicks off apace this afternoon with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan scheduled to update Wall Street and Coinbase Global, the US’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, makes its Nasdaq debut.
Please do keep sending your thoughts, observations (and corrections) to me at richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @fletcherr.
I’ll be on Times Radio just after 4.30pm today to talk through the day’s market action with John Pienaar. You can also catch me Monday to Thursday at about 7.50am on the breakfast show with Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell. Listen online, on DAB radio, your smart speaker or via the Times Radio app.
Richard
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