<p> Tesco may be leaving the U.S., pulling its Fresh & Easy chain out of the market if the numbers continue to drop. The news was announced at this year's annual shareholders' meeting. Tesco revealed that Fresh & Easy's underlying sales growth slowed to 3.6 percent in its first quarter from 12.3 percent in last year's fourth quarter.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Tesco rejected requests from Change to Win, an investment group that advises union-sponsored pension funds in the U.S., for an independent review of Fresh & Easy. The group asked Tesco to establish a committee of non-executive directors to review the Fresh & Easy venture and set fixed benchmarks to measure its success. According to the company, the full board reviews the Fresh & Easy strategy on a regular basis.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Chief Executive Philip Clarke, stated "If we see there is no chance of success, we'll do as we've just done in Japan." Tesco has been exiting Japan in two stages, starting with selling 50% of its shares during the first stage, in Tesco Japan to Aeon, creating a joint venture with Aeon. As part of this, Tesco will invest a further c.£40 million as a joint venture partner to finance further restructuring. Tesco will then have no further financial exposure to the Japanese business or its operations, according to a press release.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Philip Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Plc, stated in a release last month, "I thank our colleagues in Japan, who have done an excellent job for the business – in particular over recent months. We are very pleased to announce this deal with Aeon today, and are confident that this will deliver the best outcome for our staff, for our customers in Japan and for our shareholders."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.tescoplc.com" target="_new">Tesco</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
