Financial highlights
Good financial management and leading market
positions have served us well this year in the face of a
challenging consumer environment. We will
continue to pursue our long-term strategy which will
put us in an even stronger position once our markets
emerge from the economic downturn.
Growth on 2008 (for the 53 weeks to 28 February 2009)
Group sales (including VAT)*
Underlying Group profit before tax*†
Group profit before tax*
Underlying diluted earnings per share**
Diluted earnings per share
Dividend per share

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2009 53 weeks |
2009 52 weeks pro-forma |
2008 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group sales (£m) (including value added tax) | 59,426 | 58,588 | 51,773 |
| Group revenue (£m) (excluding value added tax) | 54,327 | 53,552 | 47,298 |
| Underlying Group profit before tax (£m)*† | 3,128 | 3,093 | 2,846 |
| Group profit before tax (£m) | 2,954 | 2,920 | 2,803 |
| Underlying diluted earnings per share (p)** | 28.92 | – | 27.02 |
| Dividend per share (p) | 11.96 | – | 10.90 |
| Group enterprise value (£m) (market capitalisation plus net debt) | 35,907 | – | 37,656 |
| Return on capital employed | 13.0%‡ | – | 12.9%§ |
* Sales and profit growth reported on a consistent basis (12 months versus 12 months) for China.
** Growth in underlying diluted EPS has been adjusted to reflect a constant tax rate year on year. Growth was 7.0% on a statutory basis.
† Adjusted for IAS 32, IAS 39, the net difference between the IAS 19 Income Statement charge and ‘normal’ cash contributions for pensions, IAS 17 ‘Leases’ (impact of annual uplifts in rent and rent-free periods), and the IFRS 3 amortisation charge on intangible assets arising on the acquisition of Tesco Personal Finance (TPF).
‡ Excluding acquisitions of TPF and Homever, India start-up costs, and after adjusting for assets held for sale.
§ Using a ‘normalised’ tax rate before start-up costs in the US and Tesco Direct, and excludes the impact of foreign exchange in equity and our acquisition of a majority share of Dobbies.

Read about Tesco's performance and other aspects of the Group’s markets, results and operations, including strategy and risk management.



