Tesco blames drop in half-year profits on Europe

Tesco's pre-tax profits in the six months to 24 August were £1.39bn, which the firm blamed on a challenging retail environment, particularly in Europe. UK like-for-like sales - which exclude new store openings - fell by 0.5%. Shares in Tesco initially fell 4.4%, before recovering to close just 0.3% lower at 358p. Rival Sainsbury's reported a 2% rise in like-for-like sales during the second quarter of its financial year. Tesco said profits fell 67% in Europe to £55m, while Asian profits, excluding China, dropped 7.4% to £314m. UK trading profits rose 1.5% to £1.13bn. Continue reading the main story Tesco also saw margins being squeezed, in what is already a notoriously competitive retail environment. Its market share rose 0.2% to 16.6%. Tesco's market share fell to 30.2% from 30.9% over the period, although it is still considerably larger than its nearest rival Asda, which has 17.3% of the market and also saw its share drop.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24361465%23sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa