Tesco 2000 Annual Report Download - page 9

TESCO PLC
7
The Directors present their annual report to shareholders on the
affairs of the Group together with the audited consolidated financial
statements of the Group for the 52 weeks ended 26 February 2000.
Principal activity and business review
The principal activity of the Group is the operation of food stores
and associated activities in the UK, Republic of Ireland, France,
Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, South Korea and Thailand.
A review of the business is contained in the Annual Review which is
published separately and, together with this document, comprises
the full Tesco PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements.
Group results
Group turnover excluding VAT rose by £1,638m to £18,796m,
representing an increase of 9.5%. Group profit on ordinary activities
before taxation, integration costs, loss on disposal of fixed assets and
goodwill amortisation was £955m compared with £881m for the
previous year, an increase of 8.4%. Including integration costs, loss on
disposal of fixed assets and goodwill amortisation, Group profit on
ordinary activities before taxation was £933m. The amount allocated
to the employee profit-sharing scheme this year was £41m as
against £38m last year. After provision for tax of £259m and
dividends, paid and proposed, of £302m, profit retained for the
financial year amounted to £372m.
Dividends
The Directors recommend the payment of a final dividend of 3.14p
per ordinary share to be paid on 30 June 2000 to members on the
Register at the close of business on 25 April 2000. Together with
the interim dividend of 1.34p per ordinary share paid in December
1999, the total for the year comes to 4.48p compared with 4.12p
for the previous year, an increase of 8.7%.
Tangible fixed assets
Capital expenditure amounted to £1,488m compared with £1,067m
during the previous year. In the Directors’ opinion, the properties
of the Group have a market value in excess of the book value of
£6,969m included in these financial statements.
Acquisitions
During the year, Tesco acquired for a consideration of £142m, a
majority holding in a newly incorporated company in South Korea.
Details of this acquisition are set out in note 32 to the financial
statements.
Share capital
The authorised and issued share capital of the company, together
with details of the shares issued during the period, are shown in
note 23 to the financial statements.
Company’s shareholders
The company is not aware of any ordinary shareholders with
interests of 3% or more.
Directors and their interests
The names and biographical details of the present Directors are
set out in the separately published Annual Review.
Mr J A Gardiner, Mr D E Reid, Mr R S Ager, Mr A T Higginson
and Mr J W Melbourn retire from the Board by rotation.
Mr J M Wemms and Baroness O’Cathain will retire from the
Board on15 June 2000 and will not offer themselves for re-election.
The service contracts of Mr D E Reid, Mr R S Ager and
Mr A T Higginson are terminable on two years’ notice from the
company.
Mr J A Gardiner and Mr J W Melbourn do not have service
contracts.
The interests of Directors and their immediate families in the
shares of Tesco PLC, along with details of Directors’ share options,
are contained in the Report of the Directors on Remuneration set
out on pages 12 to 16.
At no time during the year did any of the Directors have
a material interest in any significant contract with the company
or any of its subsidiaries.
directors’ report