Woolworths has announced a total first-half loss of $2.09 billion, caused by troubles with the Masters home improvement chain.

It also unveiled Brad Danducci as its new chief executive, when reporting its financial performance for July 1 2015 to December 31 2015.

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The hit came from a $3.25 billion one-off impairment on Woolworths’ exit from its Masters home improvement stores.

The loss attributable to equity holders was $972.7 million.

Revenue from Australian food, liquor and petrol declined 2.58 per cent to $24.96 billion.

The company cut its interim dividend from 67 to 44 cents per share, fully franked.

More to come …

– with AAP