All the latest business and financial news, including the biggest loss in Tesco’s history and Greece’s debt talksPress conference underway nowTesco shocks City with £6.38bn lossCEO: It’s been a very difficult yearEurozone: ministers to meet later today 8.10am BST Tesco has heard enough from the press pack for the moment.Dave Lewis wraps up the call, reminding us that today’s £6.38bn loss is mainly due to one-off writedowns [see 7.28am for details]. 8.07am BST Dave Lewis won’t give any guarantees about future dividend payments.Tesco: 'Future dividends will be considered within context of group performance, free cash flow generation and the level of indebtedness.' 8.05am BST Could trading profits this year actually be lower than in the last 12 months?Our aspiration is maintain our profit level at this year’s level (£1.4bn), but if we need to make investments to improve our offering, then we’ll do it, Lewis replies. 8.03am BST Alex Ralph of the Times nails it -- are you shocked by the scale of the decline at Tesco?Dave Lewis concedes that “It’s a very significant day” for Tesco, given the size of today’s large statutory loss. 8.02am BST #Tesco's Lewis: "We sought to draw a line & put the past behind us but it would be a hostage to fortune to say nothing bad will ever emerge" 7.55am BST Reuters is reporting that Tesco shares could fall by up to 3% when trading begins in a few minutes.... 7.54am BST Have you done enough to put the problems of the past behind you and reassure the City?Lewis: We have sought to draw a line and put the past behind us... but it would be a “hostage to fortune” to say that nothing bad will ever emerge. 7.53am BST This is a real kitchen-sinking job, isn’t it? asks the BBC. 7.50am BST On those £4.7bn property writedowns... Tesco explains that it’s cut £3.8bn off the value of its operational stores (due to cash flow and property values).The remaining £925m is the value of sites it is exiting (not being build, as I wrongly wrote earlier, sorry) 7.48am BST Bloomberg next -- will Tesco have to implement deeper price cuts?Lewis replies that he believes customers want “stable, low, simple prices that they can rely on”. He’s committed to delivering it for customers wherever possible. 7.45am BST First question goes to Reuters. Can you give more details about Tesco’s portfolio review?The review is still in place, Lewis adds. Dunnhumby (Tesco’s customer data arm) is the main item on the table.Nothing else to announce, but a whole lot of work is going on.We will look at all funding strategies... continue to keep all options on the table. 7.41am BST Today’s headlines will undoubtedly focus on our loss and one-off writedowns (‘fraid so, Dave), but the underlying picture is improving, Lewis concludes.Onto questions...... 7.40am BST Lewis says there has been very intense activity in Tesco, especially since January.We couldn’t have achieved a fraction of what we’ve done without the positivity and enthusiasm of our staff, he adds. 7.39am BST It will take 18 months to fully reset Tesco’s relationship with its suppliers, Lewis says. 7.39am BST Dave Lewis is holding a press call with reporters now. 7.35am BST The City will give its verdict in 30 minutes, when the London stock market opens. Traders had expected a big loss - just not this big - so the reaction could be muted....Tesco $TSCO had been flat this week on expectation of £5bn loss. Interesting to see where shares open at 8. Chart: pic.twitter.com/uzclgfOKIN 7.31am BST Tesco’s results are online here, including this chart showing how the company slumped into its record loss in the 2014-15 financial year: 7.28am BST Tesco’s huge loss is due to a series of one-off writedowns totalling £7bn.It has taken an impairment charge of £3.8bn again the value of the stores it operates, blamed on “challenging industry conditions and the decline in profit over the last year” 7.21am BST The drop in food prices in the UK has hit Tesco.It says:The UK grocery market remains highly competitive with macro-economic deflationary pressure and significant price investment across the industry. For the year as a whole, UK like-for-like sales excluding fuel declined by (3.6)% but we saw an improving trend into the second half driven by investments across the offer. 7.16am BST Dave Lewis, the executive parachuted into Tesco last summer to rebuilt its fortunes, admits that it has been “a very difficult year for Tesco”.The results we have published today reflect a deterioration in the market and, more significantly, an erosion of our competitiveness over recent years. We have faced into this reality, sought to draw a line under the past and begun to rebuild, and already we are beginning to see early encouraging signs from what we’ve done so far.“The market is still challenging and we are not expecting any let up in the months ahead.” 7.14am BST Trading profits, which strip out one-off factors, have also tumbled. Tesco posted a trading profit of £1.4bn for the last financial year, down 58.2% year-on-year. 7.11am BST Today’s results show that Tesco is struggling in the increasingly competitive supermarket sector. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, fell by 1.7% in the last quarter. 7.09am BST The City was braced for something nasty, after Sky reported last night that the loss could reach £5bn. But still -- a loss of this scale simply wasn’t expected.Quite obvious why #Tesco leaked the loss story. Imagine if they hadn't, the shock that would have come. £6.38bn loss is huge #kitchensink 7.06am BST It’s a truly stunning loss.Six point three seven billion. Imagine. 7.06am BST Breaking: Britain’s largest supermarket has just stunned the City with the biggest loss in its history.Tesco has posted a loss of almost £6.4bn for 2014, even worse than the most pessimistic analysts had expected. 7.02am BST Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.Today we’ll be watching Greece, as usual. Deputy finance ministers from across the eurozone are meeting later to discuss the progress towards locking some aid.#Greece AltFinMin Mardas says gov't is €400ml short in cash needed for end of April payments of wages & pensions. /via @koinoniaoramegaBritain’s biggest supermarket will post its first yearly figures since Mr Lewis was drafted in to turn around its fortunes following a series of profit warnings amid a ferocious price war with rivals. They are expected to show trading profits falling by 58% to £1.4bn, their lowest level for more than a decade. Continue reading...
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