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Tesco PLC
TSCO,
-1.90%
said Wednesday that its pretax profit fell in the first half of fiscal 2023 on increased costs, and it backed its guidance for the full year despite post-coronavirus market normalization and customer cost-of-living increases.
The U.K.’s biggest grocer by market share made a pretax profit of 413 million pounds($473.9 million) in the six months ended Aug. 27, down from GBP1.14 billion a year earlier, on increased finance costs and higher cost of sales.
Revenue rose to GBP32.46 billion from GBP30.42 billion a year before.
The company said that postpandemic normalization has been compounded by cost-of-living-driven changes in customer behavior, but said its solid business performance and acceleration of its Save to Invest program have led to a good first-half financial result.
As a result, it backed its adjusted retail operating profit guidance for the full year of GBP2.4 billion-GBP2.5 billion. The Tesco Bank business is expected to deliver an adjusted operating profit of around GBP120 million to GBP160 million.
The company’s board declared an interim dividend of 3.85 pence a share, up from 3.20 pence a year earlier.
Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com
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