Britain's biggest retailer Tesco on Wednesday announced a six-fold surge in annual net profits after the supermarket giant exited Asian markets and was allowed to stay open during coronavirus lockdowns. Profit after tax soared to £6.14 billion ($8.44 billion, 7.31 billion euros) in the 12 months to the end of February from £971 million in 2019/20. "While the pandemic is not yet over, we're well-placed to build on the momentum in our business," noted chief executive Ken Murphy. "We have doubled the size of our online business and... we're building a digital customer platform," he added in the results statement. As the pandemic began to take hold in March 2020, Tesco struck a deal to sell its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia to Thai conglomerate CP Group for £8.0 billion. The transactions, agreed under previous CEO Dave Lewis, were aimed at slashing debt and streamlining the group, enabling a stronger focus on UK, Irish and central European activities. bcp/spm