date:Apr 19, 2013
Tesco's annual profits have fallen for the first time in almost 20 years, as the UK's biggest supermarket confirmed it was pulling out of the US.
Tesco is exiting its US chain of 199 Fresh Easy shops, which have never made a profit, at a cost of 1.2bn.
There was also a huge write-down in the value of Tesco's UK property portfolio.
The company's statutory pre-tax profits fell 51% to 1.96bn, but post-tax profits including the cost of the US exit were just 120m, down 95.7%.
Tesco said sales at