Tesco announces pre-tax profits down 51.5%

Tesco has announced pre-tax profits of £1.96 billion in the year to February 13, down 51.5 percent.

The supermarket chain also reported a 14.5 percent fall in underlying full-year profits - the first drop in annual profits since the 1990s.

The group made an underlying pre-tax profit of £3.55 billion. That compares to analysts' consensus forecast of £3.50 billion, according to a company poll, and from £3.92 billion made in 2011/12.