By Joe Hoppe
Tesco PLC said Wednesday that its pretax profit fell in the first half of fiscal 2023 on increased costs, and it backed its guidance for the full year despite post-coronavirus market normalization and customer cost-of-living increases.
The U.K.'s biggest grocer by market share made a pretax profit of 413 million pounds($473.9 million) in the six months ended Aug. 27, down from GBP1.14 billion a year earlier, on increased finance costs and higher cost of sales.
Revenue rose to GBP32.46 billion from GBP30.42 billion a year before.
The company said that postpandemic normalization has been compounded by cost-of-living-driven changes in customer behavior, but said its solid business performance and acceleration of its Save to Invest program have led to a good first-half financial result.
As a result, it backed its adjusted retail operating profit guidance for the full year of GBP2.4 billion-GBP2.5 billion. The Tesco Bank business is expected to deliver an adjusted operating profit of around GBP120 million to GBP160 million.
The company's board declared an interim dividend of 3.85 pence a share, up from 3.20 pence a year earlier.
Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com
