Tesco is one of the worlds leading international retailers. Since the company first the trading name of Tesco, in the mid 1920s, the group has expanded into different formats, different markets and different sectors. The UKs leading retailer Tesco was floated on the stock exchange in 1947 and in 1995 took over rival Sainsburys position as the UK number one. The principal activity of the group is food retailing, with over 2,000 stores worldwide. Tesco has a long term strategy for growth, based on four key parts: growth in the Core UK business, to expand by growing internationally, to be as strong in non-food as in food and to follow customers into new retailing services. The company launched a home shopping service in 2000, allowing customers to order their shopping online. Tesco is now expanding its convenience stores and overseas into areas such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Poland, the US and Ireland.

Upper graph = 12 month share price with 6 month moving average
Lower graph = 12 month volume (red line = volume average).

The city are unmoved.

As I type, TSCO are up just 0.68% or £0.016

LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
18 Feb Cantor... N/A Under Review
17 Feb Deutsche Bank 275.00 Buy
11 Feb Deutsche Bank N/A Hold
10 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
4 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
3 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
2 Feb Jefferies... 210.00 Hold
28 Jan Shore Capital N/A Hold
27 Jan Societe... 235.00 Hold
26 Jan JP Morgan... N/A Underweight
Broker Recommendations for Tesco

New Tesco chairman gets mixed reaction from City
Tesco shares rise after appointment of John Allan, but analysts question decision to appoint Barratt Developments chairman



By Graham Ruddick12:48PM GMT 18 Feb 2015Comments1 Comment
The City has given a mixed reaction to Tesco's appointment of John Allan as chairman, questioning whether he has the heavyweight experience to lead Britain's biggest retailer.
Mr Allan is a City grandee who has served on the board of a string of public companies, but his retail experience is limited to eight years at former supermarket chain Fine Fare in the 1970s and 80s and five years as chairman of Dixons Retail.
Shares in Tesco rose 1.07, or 0.44pc, to 245.43p, but analysts said they would have preferred Tesco to choose Archie Norman, the former Asda boss and chairman of ITV.
Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, said the prospect of Mr Norman working with Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis would have been a "dream ticket". Mike Dennis, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, added: "We would have preferred Archie Norman over the 66-year-old John Allan, as Allan is seen as more of a logistics expert rather than a food retailer, given his Fine Fare days were 35 years ago."
Mr Dennis also questioned the £625,000 salary that Tesco will pay Mr Allan, adding: "Tesco, despite the halving of its market value and shrinking of its group trading profit to less than £1.4bn still seems willing to pay substantial fees, £56k per month for senior executives.

"I am not so sure that Tesco has lowered it sights or that investors have understood that this is a not typical turnaround story as Tesco is already one of the most efficient food retailers in the world, but mis-managed the timing of its supplier funding to offset its falling brand equity, falling sales densities, loss of pricing leadership and poor return on International investments.
"All these factors can be stabilised, but probably do not require a major operational investment strategy more a cost-cutting exercise and divestment of non-performing assets, in our view. The question now is whether the 'clean' Tesco UK operations actually make double digit cash returns or can that only be achieved after a substantial asset write down."
Mr Allan will join Tesco on March 1 and replace Sir Richard Broadbent, who announced he would step down after Tesco uncovered a £263m accounting scandal last September.
Mr Black said Mr Allan has a "distinguished past". He added: "The turnaround in the performance and prospects of Dixons has been a remarkable achievement by its collective management, culminating in a well-regarded merger. Mr. Allan's turnaround experience may be highly valuable to Tesco, and whilst not necessarily the centre of his time, he may have beneficial insights into logistics progress too."
However, he said: ‎"Mr Allan's appointment may raise an eyebrow or two with respect to who else was not appointed to the role of Chairman. Sir Ian Cheshire of Kingfisher fame seemingly ruled himself out of contention some weeks ago, but recent financial press speculation has centred on the possibility of Archie Norman taking up the role of Tesco chairman.
"Mr Norman needs no introduction to any seasoned supermarket watcher following his 'duet' with Allan Leighton in the 1990s. We cannot second guess whether Mr Norman was in serious contention or not and frankly now it does not matter. However, from our perspective we could foresee a 'dream-ticket' scenario of Messrs Norman and Lewis working together, one that we sense the market would have warmly welcomed, but this is not to be."
Nicla di Palma at brokers Brewin Dolphin said: "We will give due consideration to this appointment. It is slightly disappointing that both the CEO and chairman do not have recent food retail experience."

And that’s probably because he’s no Archie Norman. :-))

Looking like make your mind up time here. But who knows, had a good run. Next resistance 280p. If it drops below 200DMA good bet profit taking will accelerate.

Balance sheet wise Lewis knows there are still issues to be addressed. ‘The financing is fine. The issue for the group is the amount of debt.’ He notes that the balance sheet shows £8billion, which would be sustainable. If you add on the costs of capitalised long leases and the pension deficit ‘its £22billion and that is a figure we have to start thinking about’.


The Mail, CITY-INTERVIEW-Tesco-boss-Dave-Lewis-vows-restore-fortunes-Britain-s-biggest-grocer

Sharecast -


Tesco loses two more directors as Garfield and Tammenoms step down

Thu, 26 February 2015


Tesco loses two more directors as Garfield and Tammenoms step down

Two more Tesco directors have decided to join chairman Sir Richard Broadbent in departing at the end of this week.
The supermarket group revealed that Jacqueline Tammenoms, a six-year stalwart of the retailer's boardroom, had decided to step down at the end of the month.

Simultanously, Liv Garfield, also the chief executive of Severn Trent, called time on her stint just shy of two years after taking on the non-executive role.

Tesco said Garfield wanted to leave in order to allow her to concentrate fully on her new role at the FTSE 100 water company.

Chairman Sir Richard Broadbent, who is also due to leave at the end of the Month, said: "Tesco would like to put on record its appreciation for the dedicated and unstinting contribution of all its directors during a time of unprecedented challenge."

Last week the FTSE 100 group confirmed it had appointed Dixons Carphone chairman John Allan as a replacement for Broadbent, who resigned following the accounting scandal last October.

The resignations of Garfield and Tammenoms will leave Tesco with only one female non-executive on its board, US turnaround specialist Deanna Oppenheimer.

Well, wifey and I keep shopping there.

Maybe not next time though! Sainsbury's have pulled us away with a "Spend only £30 and get a voucher for 10p per litre of your petrol." So we will split the shopping conveyor and get ourselves two of those.

We are also very heavy on the things Aldi sell, which the average family simply just cannot do without. Anyone who shops at Aldi and wanders round the store, will know exactly what I mean.

talkingretail,will-tescos-strategy-simplify-product-range-succeed.

Highest since last August @248.50p - mind the gap!

Link copied - Martin Sorrell just explained why WPP is interested in buying a piece of Tesco

Tesco announces 21 store transaction

TESCO REFOCUSES ON ITS CORE BUSINESS WITH 21 STORE TRANSACTION

Tesco has regained sole ownership of 21 superstores in a transaction with British Land. The agreement comes as Tesco continues to strengthen its core UK business.

The 21 superstores and associated debt were part of a joint venture between Tesco and British Land and were all subject to RPI-indexed rent increases.

In exchange for the superstores, British Land will take over Tesco's stake in three shopping centres, three retail parks and three standalone stores which are held in two joint ventures between the two companies. Tesco will continue to lease the stores at these sites at market rents which are not subject to RPI-indexed increases.

As part of the transaction, Tesco will also receive £96m from British Land.

Dave Lewis, Tesco CEO, said:

"Last year we identified the opportunity to increase the proportion of our stores we own as freehold. This transaction with British Land allows us to increase our ownership and thereby insulate more of our businesses from indexed rent reviews. We have a long way to go but it's a transaction which takes us in the right direction. This agreement makes our business simpler and stronger."

Tesco sales rise shows tentative recovery continues

Barclays Capital Equal weight 248.40 205.00 240.00 Reiterates

Tesco-could-face-3bn-bill-for-failing-supermarkets.

"Tesco's pension deficit is likely to have widened – possibly to over £5bn - and we expect to hear more detail on how this will be addressed. We also expect Tesco to follow Morrison and Sainsbury's by taking a large property impairment – circa £3bn does not seem an unreasonable estimate when extrapolating from the peers."

The analysts said they "remain wary of totally ruling out a rights issue" but that there is "little immediate pressure" for Tesco given its credit rating has already been downgraded to junk.

Alongside the analysis from Barclays, figures from Nielsen suggest that Tesco's performance has slid behind rivals Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

http://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/forget-discounters-the-real-reason-to-worry-about-tesco/a809398?ref=wealth_manager_all_stories_list

May be its time for me to exit Tesco before the possibility of the Summer sell off.

http://www.dailymail.Tesco-set-unveil-eye-watering-4bn-loss-boss-Drastic-Dave-Lewis-rolls-turnaround-plan.

Tesco to plug pensions black hole

By Giles Gwinnett
April 21 2015, 6:39pm
Wednesday's agenda - Tesco's pending full year results divides opinion


Supermarket supertanker Tesco (LON:TSCO) reports final results and the numbers are sure to be closely scrutinised, though what they will be has opinion divided.

It's been a rough couple of years for Britain's largest grocer, blighted with falling profits and accounting scandals, but recently the green shoots of improvement have been visible.

Earlier this month, Kantar, the market researcher, said in the 12 weeks to March 29, Tesco sales were up 0.3% to £7.1bn.

But there's no doubt that new man at the helm Dave Lewis certainly has his work cut out for him as he attempts to re-build the group's balance sheet and rebuild shareholder value.

Most commentators believe the results will paint a dismal picture Wednesday though HSBC has gone against the grain.

The international bank has a "buy" recommendation on the shares and a target price of 295 pence, which is a long old way from the current price of 234.75p.

The bank reckons despite a period of huge under-performance, sales growth has been catching up with the industry and it is no longer losing significant market share.

Others expect the results to be the worst in 96 years, with some predicting the loss for the year to be up to £5bn.

Other black holes to look out for are said to include the pension deficit, property writedown, and supplier fees.

Pension problems dominated news on Tuesday with the retailer kicking off consultation with its 300,000 about the future of their pensions. The deficit has been estimated at £5bn.

US broker Citi rates the shares 'neutral' targeting £2.35 - up from £1.90.

The broker expects £1,840mln net ‘retail’ operating cash flow for FY14/15 - around 50% lower than last year and assumes a £4.5bn pension deficit at year-end.