Tesco has announced profits of £2.55 billion (€3.74 billion) following a 13 per cent rise in annual underlying profit.
The company said like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose 5.8 per cent in the final quarter of its financial year, which ended on February 24. This was up from a third-quarter rise of 5.6 per cent.
Tesco said annual revenues, excluding value added tax, rose 10.9 per cent to £42.6 billion, in line with analysts' forecasts.
The company, which employs more than 450,000 people, said it expected to create more than 25,000 new jobs worldwide this year. It is also expanding into the United States.
Tesco proposed an annual dividend of 9.64 pence a share, up 11.7 per cent on the year before.
The retailer said it expects to return at least £3 billion from property sales to investors, up from £1.5 billion previously.
With private equity firms targeting several of Britain's retailers for possible takeover, in part because of their rich asset base, companies are under pressure to extract value from the big rise in value of commercial properties.
Tesco, which has 86 stores throughout Ireland, is facing a growing challenge from rivals Asda and a resurgent J. Sainsbury in its core British market.