Tesco Acquisition of Kipa

Tesco PLC
11 November 2003

11 November 2003

                    Tesco acquires Turkish Hypermarket Chain

Tesco today announced that it has gained control of Kipa, a small Turkish
hypermarket chain by acquiring the necessary majorities of the unlisted A shares
and listed B shares.

Tesco first signalled that it was in talks with Kipa in August 2002.

The equity capital cost of 100% of Kipa is £75m debt free (USD $124m at current
exchange rates*), plus an additional payment in return for cash acquired on the
balance sheet on closing. This is a cash deal. Tesco will be making a tender
offer for the outstanding B shares as required by Turkish law.

Kipa operates 5 hypermarkets in the Aegean region with reported sales in 2002 of
£124m, pre tax profit of £4.7m and has over 1,500 employees. Turkey has a
growing population of 70 million with an underdeveloped retail market. In 2002
it had real GDP growth of 7.8% and is working towards EU accession which will
bring further economic benefits.

Terry Leahy, Chief Executive, said, 'The acquisition of Kipa is an important
step in our international strategy for long term growth. It is a great
opportunity and an ideal entry vehicle: Kipa has a small and profitable chain of
hypermarkets operating in a growing market. We will be working with existing
management and three of the current Kipa directors to serve Turkish customers
even better.'


Enquiries

Press:       Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco PLC              [phone]
             Angus Maitland, The Maitland Consultancy   [phone]

Analysts:    Steve Butler, Tesco PLC                    [phone]
             Lucy Cross, Tesco PLC                      [phone]


* Exchange rate as at 10 Nov 2003: £1: USD $1.65




                      This information is provided by RNS
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