There have been mixed results for UK retailers announced in the past few days. Supermarket giant Tesco announced pre-tax profits of £3.54bn for the 12 months to the end of February, this is an 11.3% increase on the same period for the previous year. Positive results have been accredited to expansion in Asia. There is a short video about Tesco in China here. When you consider all that Tesco now do, this is probably unsettling news for the Home Retail Group who own Argos and Homebase. They reported profits for 2010 of £265.2m which is a reduction of 10% on the previous year.

As if to prove that multinational companies have little observation of national boundaries, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have decided to work together on a joint venture to buy telecommunications equipment together. This alliance will save an estimated £1.15bn a year. Staying within the technology arena, Intel have announced record Q1 earnings of $12.8bn. Meanwhile Chinese Huawei, who make telecom equipment that presumably companies like Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom might buy, announced an increase in net profits to £2.23bn for 2010.

JP Morgan Chase announced Q1 net income of $5.6bn, compared to $3.3bn for the same period in 2010. Earnings per share rose to $1.28 from $0.74 (double) for the same period.  Goldman Sachs 2010 results saw its net revenue reduce from $45.173bn to $39.161bn to the end of 2010, earnings per share reduced from $22.13 to $13.18.

So some Bankers are doing better than others… but the message to take home is that those firms doing business in Asia are seeing fruit.

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