A strong fourth quarter - which included the all-important Christmas trading period - helped Tesco (TSCO) chief executive Dave Lewis report a resilient set of annual results as he continues to bring the supermarket chain back from the brink. For the year as a whole, like-for-like sales were flat, but they rose 1.6 per cent during the fourth quarter. Underlying sales momentum was particularly strong abroad, growing 3.8 per cent during the final quarter, and 4.1 per cent in Europe specifically.
Compared to its 2015 full-year results, these numbers read relatively simply. Cash generation from retail operations improved nearly 40 per cent in the past year, and net debt fell by a similar amount following the disposal of the Homeplus business in South Korea last October. In terms of exceptionals, a £480m credit from the closure of its defined benefit pension scheme more than offset property and other impairments, and the scheme's deficit reduced substantially.