British supermarket giant Tesco, the country's biggest retailer, said on April 17 that net profits soared by a fifth in 2006 to a record 1.892 billion pounds (2.777 billion euros, 3.767 billion dollars).
Net profits leapt by 20.5 percent to reach the record level, which compared with a figure of 1.570 billion pounds in 2005, the group said in its annual earnings release.
Tesco, which has 3,000 supermarket branches world-wide including 1,800 in Britain, said that revenue rose by 8.1 percent to 42.641 billion pounds, driven by strong sales in Asia, eastern Europe and its home market.
Pre-tax profits leapt by 13.2 percent last year to 2.545 billion pounds, which was at the top end of market expectations.
Alongside the results, Tesco said it would create 25,000 new jobs around the world this year. The group will also return "at least" 3.0 billion pounds to shareholders in 2007, compared with the 1.5 billion pounds announced previously. "Tesco is investing for the future and delivering today," said Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy in comments accompanying the release.
"These results demonstrate that we have again made good progress across the group, whilst making significant start-up investment in new businesses and coping well with challenging conditions in some markets." Tesco is the world's third-biggest retailer behind French supermarket Carrefour and US giant Wal-Mart, which is out in front. Tesco accounts for one third of the total retail market in Britain - equal to the combined sales of its two nearest rivals, which are Wal-Mart unit Asda and Sainsbury.
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