Britain's Tesco starts land sell-off process

LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Britain's biggest retailer, has started the process to sell-off land from abandoned supermarket development projects, seeking to raise cash to help to finance its recovery plan under its new boss.

The group said on Monday that it had appointed real estate adviser Savills (LSE: SVS.L - news) to market six British sites, at Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Burton-on-Trent (BSE: TRENT.BO - news) , Leeds, Doncaster and in the West Midlands.

Dave Lewis, who joined as Tesco chief executive in September, is pursuing efficiency measures, cutting costs and selling assets to mend the group's finances and fight back from years of declining market share, debt-rating downgrades and an accounting scandal.

The company said in January that it would close 43 unprofitable stores and abandon 49 planned developments.

"Where we no longer require land for stores, then we put it on the market so it can be developed by others," a Tesco spokesman said.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Tesco closed up 1.1 percent at 241 pence.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by David Goodman)