Sainsbury profits jump to £380m

Sainsbury is the UK's third-largest supermarket chain

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has seen its full-year profits surge as it cut prices to lure customers from rivals.

Underlying pre-tax profit was £380m in the 52 weeks to 24 March, from £267m in the same period a year earlier. Sales climbed 6.9% to £18.52bn from £17.32bn.

That strong growth means that staff will share a record £56m bonus pot.

Sainsbury's, which has been a takeover target for a private equity consortium in recent months, also said it had narrowed its pensions deficit to £55m.

"This strong performance was delivered despite potential takeover speculation in the last quarter of the year," said chairman Philip Hampton.

"The board did not receive a formal bid approach capable of being put to shareholders."

Despite the better-than-expected earnings growth, Sainsbury's shares in London closed unchanged at 558p.

'Retain ownership'

Sainsbury's is facing calls from some investors who want to split up its supermarket and real estate business.

They believe that as much as £4bn should be returned to shareholders by the sale of real estate.

Sainsbury's said that the value of its property holdings was £8.6bn, 65% more than earlier estimates, and underlined its unwillingness to cave in to pressure to break up its business.

Now is the right time to look to the next stage of our recovery and to expand the business to drive growth for the longer term Justin King, CEO Check Sainsbury's shares

"Property has always been at the heart of our business and is closely aligned to our successful operation," Mr Hampton said.

"Our estate still has considerable development potential, which we believe will maximise both operational and freehold property value.

"As we move from recovery to growth, we believe it is right to retain ownership of our properties."

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said that Sainsbury's wanted to hang onto its property because it believe the property's value was tightly tied to the performance of its stores.

"Sainsbury's has in effect stuck two fingers up at private equity - and at Robbie Tchenguiz, the property tycoon who owns 5% of Sainsbury's and wants it to demerge all its property," he said.

Looking out

Sainsbury's said that to help drive earnings growth it had cut prices on 20,000 products, and had benefited from greater demand for organic and its premium Taste The Difference range.

As a result, the company said it was ahead of its current sales targets and set new forecasts for the coming three years.

Sainsbury's launched a restructuring programme in 2004, which is due to come to an end in October this year.

"We believe now is the right time to look to the next stage of our recovery and to expand the business to drive growth for the longer term," said chief executive Justin King.

Right now, Sainsbury seems to be moving out of its recovery phase. But what if it slips up? Robert Peston, BBC business editor The Sainsbury experiment

Mr King has now overseen nine quarters of consecutive sales growth.

Sainsbury's said that it planned to increase sales to £3.5bn by the end of 2010 and would look to increase its amount of retail space by 10% and roll out its online home delivery service to 200 stores nationwide.

"Right now, Sainsbury's seems to be moving out of its recovery phase and may actually be adding proper new sales for the first time in years," said the BBC's Robert Peston.

"But what if it slips up?" he asked.

Mr Peston explained that Delta Two, an investment company that looks after money from the Gulf state of Qatar recently became Sainsbury's biggest shareholder with a 17.6% stake.

"And if Qatari interests wanted to own the whole thing, they have more than enough cash," he said.

"The modern rule for any company with decent assets and a good brand name, like Sainsbury's, is that if private equity doesn't buy it, there's still a chance of a takeover bid from a Russian oligarch or an oil-rich Gulf state."