Tesco will invest £1bn in improving its stores, after it announced marginally better results than expected but admitted it would drastically scale back its expansion in Britain after poor sales.
Lloyds said 2012 revenue would fall and pushed back a key financial target as the part state-owned British bank joined rival Royal Bank of Scotland in posting a hefty loss for 2011. Lloyds, 40 percent owned by the government after a state bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, reported on Friday an annual loss of 3.54 billion pounds, having made a profit of 281 million in 2010.
HSBC has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses to French insurer AXA Group and Australia's QBE Insurance Group for $914 million (581 million pounds) in cash, as Europe's biggest bank moves ahead with its plan to divest non-core assets.
Chancellor George Osborne should focus on implementing the growth-boosting measures he unveiled last year in the budget due on March 21, Britain's biggest business lobby group said on Wednesday.