Tesco Plc on Oct. 4 reported a sharp rise in pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2018 as the U.K.'s leading supermarket operator by revenue continued to reap the benefits of a turnaround plan.
The company reported that pretax profit for the six-month period ended Aug. 26 jumped to £562 million from £71 million in the same period a year earlier, while diluted EPS climbed to 5.21 pence from 0.42 pence. Statutory revenue increased 3.7% year over year to £28.3 billion from £27.3 billion.
All the figures were ahead of expectations. According to S&P Capital IQ consensus estimates for the first half, Tesco was expected to report pretax profit of £423.50 million and normalized EPS of 4 pence on revenue of £28.17 billion.