Scenario:

The success of food retailing has been very much at the forefront of business news, with major food retailers employing multi format and multi-channel approaches as a way of gaining and maintaining their competitive advantage.

During 2014 Carrfour opened more than 750 new stores worldwide with their store base expanding by 457,000 sq. m during the year. Currently Carrefour has 1,459 hypermarkets, 3,115 supermarkets,6,111 convenience stores and 175 cash & carry stores.

Tesco's strategy has been developed to drive sustainable growth throughthree priorities: continuing to invest ina strong UK business, establishing multichannelleadership in all ofour markets and pursuing disciplinedinternational growth.

Required:

You have been appointed as a financial analyst for the food retailing industry to conduct a comparative analysis on these two food retailing giants. You are required to submit a professionally produced report which should include a detailed analysis of the following areas:-

(a) Profitability

(b) Efficiency(except Average settlement period for receivables)

(c) Liquidity

(d) Gearing

(e) Horizontal common size analysis (using 2011 as a base)

(f) Vertical common size analysis (using total assets as a base)

(g) The evaluation of performance of business units in either Tesco or Carrefour using financial and non-financial measures

(h) Conclusions and Recommendations

You should state any assumptions made and you are not required to comment on the investment performance of neither Tesco nor Carrefour.