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).

robinhood, have a read here.

Tesco pays £40m to exit Japan
Supermarket chain Tesco, struggling with falling sales in the UK, has announced it will pay £40m to exit its Japanese business.

Tesco first opened in Japan since 2003, and has 117 shops in the country, in and around Tokyo. Harry Wallop and Amy Wilso
Analysts said Tesco should be pleased they had "washed their hands" of the loss-making Japanese supermarkets, but some said they were "disappointed" they had been forced to pay a rival to take it off their hands.

It also, once again, shines the spotlight on its Fresh and Easy business in America, which has still not made a profit for Tesco.

Tesco will sell 50pc of its shares in Tesco Japan to Aeon, the biggest retailer in that country, for a "nominal" sum. The two companies will then own the business as a joint venture, and Tesco will then put £40m into the business to pay for "restructuring". It is understood that this £40m payment will improve the chances of its 1,000 employees in Japan be transferred across to the new business.

After paying the money, "Tesco will have no further financial exposure to the Japanese business or its operations," the retailer said today. The remaining 50pc stake will be sold to Aeon at a later date.

Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, said: "Having to pay £40m to exit the market is a disappointment of sorts to our mind but it reveals the challenges of the Japanese market and caps the damage from what is a subscale business."

The Japanese supermarkets lost £25m last year and £35m the year before.

Philip Dorgan at Panmure Gordon said: "I don't think anyone really thought they'd make any money for the business. Paying £40m for someone to take it off their hands isn't a bad result. Frankly, in this climate it's nice to just get rid of it."

Tesco was hit in Japan from a combination of the difficult economy and not being big enough in the country. Its market share in the Tokyo area never reached more than 1pc. The company admits that it had failed to win over commuters from their usual local convenience stores to the Tesco Express format.

The exit from Japan after nine years highlights its other main loss-making business overseas, Fresh & Easy, based on the west coast of America, which lost £165m last year. Last week Tesco reported underlying sales growth at this business had slowed to 3.6pc in its first quarter from 12.3pc in the fourth quarter.

Tesco is not the only retailer to have struggled in Japan. Carrefour, the French supermarket owner, quit Japan in 2005 and Wal-mart, the US group, has found it difficult to increase the profitability its Seiyu group of supermarkets, which are a far bigger brand than Tesco.

Tesco first opened in Japan since 2003, and has 117 shops in the country, in and around Tokyo. The company said in August last year it was quitting the country because its business was not big enough to make it profitable.

In the entire FTSE 100 index, there is not a single company with a lower price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, higher dividend yield and better forecast profit growth than Tesco.The shares trade on 8.8 times forecast earnings for 2013. The forecast dividend yield is 4.9%.21 FTSE 100 stocks are expected to pay a higher dividend than Tesco. The same number of FTSE 100 companies trade on a lower forward P/E. Only eight FTSE 100 companies trade on both a higher expected dividend and lower forward P/E than Tesco. None of those eight companies is expected to match Tesco's profit growth. At today's price, Tesco represents a unique proposition of blue-chip value, income and growth.Much of the investment discussion on Tesco describes the company as "struggling". That pessimism is not matched by the professional analyst community. They expect Tesco to deliver modest eps growth for 2013 of 1.0%, followed by 7.7% growth for 2014. The dividend is forecast to rise 1.2% for 2013 and by another 7.9% for 2014.Investors may have been encouraged by Tesco's recent announcement that it is withdrawing from the Japanese market. This decision leaves management more focused on the company's core markets. Worryingly, trading statements from rival firms such as Sainsbury 's suggest Tesco is losing UK market share. Tesco's success in the UK market had driven international expansion and shareholder returns. The company's current valuation suggests investors expect Tesco rivals to continue to gain ground on the market leader

Tesco may buy majority stake in Uyum Gida - paper

ISTANBUL | Tue Jul 3, 2012 8:36am BST
(Reuters) - British group Tesco (TSCO.L), the world's No.3 retailer, is interested in buying a majority stake in Turkish grocer Uyum Gida (UYUM.IS), Turkey's Vatan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Uyum Gida said last August it had signed a one-year confidentiality agreement with a foreign investment fund to look into options for the company.

Vatan said Tesco was the company which emerged from talks as the main candidate.

Uyum Gida has 50 shops, while Tesco bought a majority stake in Turkish retailer Kipa in 2003.

25 EMA crossed 50 EMA

Upward trend to begin ?

BIG chart.,.

Ideal for analysis

Reading the mail today, Tesco may set a nuclear bomb off in the form of price cuts to win back straying customers. Competitors seem very worried. Would not rule out Asda as the parent company being walmart, matching them. Tesco still losing market share.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2180296/Tesco-rivals-alert-nuclear-price-war.html

Tesco outlook cut to negative by S&P, warns profits will weaken
Standard & Poor's has cut the outlook on Tesco to negative as it warned that profits at the UK's largest retailer will continue to weaken, and suggested it sell off businesses.

Last month, Tesco revealed that like-for-like sales, excluding both VAT and petrol, dropped 1.5pc during its first quarter to May 26 Photo: Bloomberg News By Andrew Trotman
2:07PM BST 31 Jul 2012
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The move makes a downgrade of the company's debt rating more likely in the near future.

S&P said pressure from rivals, such as Sainsbury's and Asda, in the grocery sector and weak consumer spending as the UK remains mired in a double-dip recession means performance will "continue to be dampened".

Household spending remains sluggish as nominal wage growth and the Government's austerity measures eat into people's spending power, S&P added. "A fragile labour and housing market, and high household debt burden," would also harm Tesco.

The ONS revealed last week that the UK economy shrank by 0.7pc in the second quarter - far more than the 0.2pc fall expected - as record rainfall and the Jubilee holiday added to pressure from austerity cuts and the eurozone debt crisis.

Economists warned it is now “inconceivable” that the British economy will grow in 2012.

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S&P added that measures Tesco executives are taking to improve customer service would actually hurt the company overall.

"We believe that the commitment by Tesco management to invest in improving customer service and experience levels in its UK stores will also negatively affect its trading margins," S&P said in a statement.

Last month, Tesco revealed that like-for-like sales, excluding both VAT and petrol, dropped 1.5pc during its first quarter to May 26.

At the time, chief executive Philip Clarke blamed the European debt crisis for the fall. "We are reporting subdued trading across all of our markets," he said. "Though our market share is going up in all of those markets. It's not a question of tailwinds pushing us along, only headwinds blowing. Customers don't have any more disposable income than a year ago."

The retailer also revealed that is has been hit by a number of problems in its overseas markets, notably in South Korea and the Czech Republic. S&P built on these woes by claiming that the international business could fail to "compensate for the ongoing difficult trading conditions in its home market".

"We would likely lower the ratings if Tesco's current 'excellent' business risk profile were to weaken due to a sustained fall in its UK market share, declining sales growth in its international operations, or a failure to turn around currently visible trends of declining profitability," S&P added.

The agency said a downgrade was likely if debt to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) rose higher than 3.5x. According to the last results, it is currently 1.3x.

However, the outlook could be moved back to stable if Tesco cuts debt by selling businesses or "succeeds in turning the currently negative operating trends around and establishes reasonable headroom under its key financial metrics".

S&P affirmed its A-/A-2 corporate credit ratings on the retailer.

The shares were flat at 318.45p in afternoon trading.

will continue to hold as the run up to xmas may bouy the sp.,.

Upward trend is here?

in profit now, will continue to hold as i said before. reckon will be good on run up to xmas.

Oh great....Ugh.....we've now started talking about Christmas. How many shopping days left????????? ;o)

Harry - hope this helps :-)

where we are there has been a very noticeable decline in footfall at most supermarkets, so don't hold your breath, they are not having a good year.

You might as well accept it harry, xmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, please put several thousand pounds in tone's hat.,.

Christmas.. Which one? -):

340 & 200ma beckon.

up again..... £4 acomin.,.