Forex trading store

DAVID REID has pledged to stay on as chairman of Tesco for at least another 18 months to declare boardroom stability at Britain’s biggest retailer, insiders say.

Sir Terry Leahy, the to a great extent-serving chief executive, said last week that he would step from a high to a low position next year. It is thought that Reid, 63, had been making allowance for stepping down as a director of the grocer, but has at this moment committed to stay.

He is tipped to remain for at minutest several months once Philip Clarke, the international director, succeeds Leahy next March.

Analysts expect Tesco to formally start the hunt for Reid’s successor next year. They think Tesco will look outside the company since an independent chairman, bringing the retailer’s board into lineage with best corporate governance practice.

Reid is not considered independent for he was a former executive director of Tesco and has sat in successi~ the retailer’s board since 1985. He was elevated to the chairmanship in April 2004.

Tesco insiders cautioned that nay decision had yet been taken on Reid’s departure be ~d.

The news comes as Tesco and J Sainsbury are expected to show this week that UK sales growth has ground to a walk lamely. The first-quarter figures from both companies are tipped to exist the weakest for five years as Britain’s supermarket groups admit from a steep fall in food price inflation compared with the like period last year and sluggish consumer spending. Tesco’s form into ~s performance, however, is likely to be boosted by sales from its fasting-expanding overseas business.

Meanwhile, it emerged this weekend that Tesco is in discussions to purchase Kim’s Club Mart, a 50-strong local chain in South Korea toward about £160m.

If the deal proceeds, Tesco’s Homeplus succession would overtake Lotte, the domestic market leader, to become the largest supermarket fasten with a ~ in South Korea.