Tesco to close remaining Homeplus stores in UK

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest retailer Tesco is to close the remaining six Homeplus stores in its home market, bringing the curtain down on the non-food retail business with the potential loss of about 450 jobs.

Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) said on Tuesday the stores in Bristol, Bracknell, Nottingham, Denton, Bromborough and Preston (OTC BB: PSNP - news) will close on June 27.

"We've taken the difficult decision to close our remaining six Homeplus stores. Our priority is now to explain what this announcement means for our colleagues and wherever possible, offer them alternative roles with Tesco," said a spokesman for the firm.

Six Homeplus stores were included in 43 store closures announced by Tesco in January.

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.

Last month Tesco posted an annual loss of 6.4 billion pounds ($10 billion), one of the biggest in British corporate history.

($1 = 0.6387 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Susan Thomas)