Tesco is one of the worlds leading international retailers. Since the company first the trading name of Tesco, in the mid 1920s, the group has expanded into different formats, different markets and different sectors. The UKs leading retailer Tesco was floated on the stock exchange in 1947 and in 1995 took over rival Sainsburys position as the UK number one. The principal activity of the group is food retailing, with over 2,000 stores worldwide. Tesco has a long term strategy for growth, based on four key parts: growth in the Core UK business, to expand by growing internationally, to be as strong in non-food as in food and to follow customers into new retailing services. The company launched a home shopping service in 2000, allowing customers to order their shopping online. Tesco is now expanding its convenience stores and overseas into areas such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Poland, the US and Ireland.

Upper graph = 12 month share price with 6 month moving average
Lower graph = 12 month volume (red line = volume average).

Supermarkets have become big-business because they cater for the rising aspirations of their local areas - just look at their effect on Petrol stations. This is because folks look only at the "headline price" and cheap petrol somehow off-sets their longer round-trip
.
However, as investors we've become used to increasing profits and the various "scams" they all run ( er, depending upon your viewpoint, naturally), are there to make more profit.


If you can't afford it, then be strong and buy the lower-priced item, is my motto.
IMHO Lidl and the like have raised their prices recently - their wines are an example where you can't buy anything that is "cheap" - admittedly they are probably below other Supermarkets, but I think (the Big five) should concentrate on filling their shelves with more-different products, rather than more-choice. If you want crisps, then having a whole aisle full of them doesn't make you spend more, only different. That difference means TSCO is carrying a lot of stock-capital, whereas they could increase their product ranges, esp. non-food..... since the Gov. is trying to reduce our food-intake!
Greekman pointed to Value-scams a while back and whilst there is much merit in his words, there are times when buying a smaller qty does save you money - a small bag of potatoes at £1 is better then a really large one at £2.50 - because a single-person will throw away the stuff when it goes off. In addition there is the suspicion that the big bag will contain a few "wrong-uns" to make the weight ( Ooops!).

What I object to is supermarkets that "Up the Price" for no reason - a change of packing is no excuse and often you will find the value-range repacked so it commands a higher price - one suspects that this is to remove the value-item which is a drag on profits.....but I'd argue that rich customers don't fine these bottom-shelf goods as they fly through towards the expensive items on their list. ASDA has doubled their Ketchup price, by substituting plastic for glass - now, glass is recyclable whereas plastic isn't - so I suspect they are paying more for no purpose.
Of course, it could be they will bring back the cheaper prices if enough folks can be bothered to complain . . . . but as Greekman hinted, one wonders if suggestion are filed in the bin, such is the arrogance of Managers while profits are rising.

I have no comment on TSCO profit-hole, other than to wonder if shareholders shouldn't ask Auditors to repay their fees - and maybe a few Dir bonuses likewise.
I'll get my coat.

Buy @13p is my advice.

Going to £1.50 imo

At 160 , they maybe under valued

Wonder how the NAV stacks up now with the Market Cap????

All that land and property.

You never know a cheeky bid could come in.

lol mitzy isnt that a tad high though? ;

Alright 50p then..lol.

Talk of a rights issue

certainly no reason to buy tesco
whether they're worth shorting still is a moot point

Look at the NAV look at the NAV .............you SILLY BILLY.

if you want to buy these, then good luck to you

You never know a cheeky bid could come in.

Walmart/Buffet joint bid ? when the dust clears

If they go down much more ,i might make a bid , my Asian mates down at the corner shop said they will put in with me.

Directorate Changes

Tesco PLC today announces that Richard Cousins and Mikael Ohlsson will join the Board of Tesco on 1 November 2014 as Non-executive Directors.
Richard has been Group CEO of Compass Group PLC since 2006. He was a Non-executive Director of Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC from 2009 until May 2014 and of HBOS PLC and Bank of Scotland from 2007 to 2009. He will bring valuable UK and international corporate experience to the Board.

Mikael was until September 2013 CEO and President of the IKEA Group. He is a Non-executive Director of Volvo Car Corporation, Ikano S.A. and Lindengruppen. He will bring valuable retail and international experience to the Board.

perhaps mikael was flown in :-))

This happened on Monday this week but I cannot find a mention of it on MoneyAM's RNS News. How strange.

Julia Kollewe
The Guardian, Tuesday 7 October 2014 09.44 BST

Tesco suspends another executive after profits debacle
Group commercial director Kevin Grace was asked to step aside on Monday, FT reports

A fifth executive is understood to have been suspended by Tesco as Britain’s biggest retailer investigates the shock £250m overstatement of its profits.

The Financial Times reported that group commercial director Kevin Grace was asked to step aside on Monday, although Tesco declined to comment. Grace has been on Tesco’s executive committee since December 2011, having joined the supermarket group in 1982.

Just three weeks after its new chief executive Dave Lewis took the reins, Britain’s biggest grocer stunned investors with the revelation that its profits had been artificially inflated by £250m. Last month it suspended four executives, including the head of its UK food business), called in investigators and rushed in its new finance director, Alan Stewart, to help them get to the bottom of the accounting scandal. The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is conducting its own investigation into the issue.

The Tesco board came under fire again at the end of last week, after the embarrassing revelation that the embattled supermarket group had bought a new $50m Gulfstream corporate jet in 2013. Lewis is battling to stabilise sales after four shock profit warnings this year.

I read that today on another site , also lot of talk about the Tesco club card being sold off for 2 Billion , and talk of legal action if they sell customers information.

US Firm TPG eyes up a £2bn BID for Tesco Clubcard arm

more blue? hsbc upgrade out

The following is somewhat unbelievable - or is it?

Tesco shares fall as embattled giant faces break-up talk in the City - with one analyst claiming its UK supermarkets valued as 'worth nothing'
By RUPERT STEINER

PUBLISHED: 21:51, 13 October 2014 | UPDATED: 11:25, 14 October 2014

A week might be a long time in politics but that maxim seems to also apply to embattled supermarket Tesco.

Seven days of hell saw another senior executive suspended, delivery of a shiny new corporate jet at the worst possible time, and billionaire Warren Buffet rueing his investment.

All fuelled the growing crisis. It was just 24 weeks ago that former chief executive Philip Clarke spouted: ‘I have no intention of going anywhere.

The bad times keep rolling: Seven days of hell saw another senior executive suspended, delivery of a shiny new corporate jet at the worst possible time, and billionaire Warren Buffet rueing his investment.

'We've got a strategy and I'm going to see this through'

Now he is out on his tod and the once mighty giant – Tesco not Clarke – is the subject of break-up talk.

Shares in the grocer fell 2.5 per cent yesterday and another 2p or 1% today to 178.6p after another negative research note estimated the value of different parts of the business if it was to be broken up.

The UK arm, it concluded, could be valued by the market as being worth a fat nothing, quite damning given Britain was the crucible for its success.

Tesco’s fall from grace has been as swift as it has been brutal, but Clive Black, an analyst at broker Shore Capital has placed it on hold in the hope of a bid.

He wrote: ‘Extensive sum of the parts work is under way across the market and for good reason as this is an asset rich business.’

The most valuable part of the firm is Tesco’s Asian business conservatively worth the equivalent 55 per cent to 65 per cent of the group’s current £15billion market value.

Without Asia, the group’s growth would need to be considerably re-appraised.

Black adds: ‘Additionally, we can see strong market interest and value in Tesco Bank, Tesco Ireland, elements of the Central European businesses, Dunnhumby [loyalty card], Dobbies [garden centre] and One-Stop [Tobacconist].

‘As such, if fully disposed on a market capitalisation basis, the core chain could arguably be valued at close to zero, noting a further £10billion of liabilities in debt and the pension deficit.

‘Such analysis and, indeed, scope for Tesco to be vulnerable to a financial buying consortium, are reasons why we have the stock on our “hold” roster.’

There are few other reasons to remain in the stock and plenty to pile out.

Many feel the worst is yet to come with much of the bad news not yet in the public arena and then there is the delayed second quarter trading update which could see underlying sales down as much as 6 per cent.

But Tesco was not alone in hitting new lows yesterday. At one point the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks plumbed to a 15-month low over concerns the eurozone is about to plunge back into the recession spilled over into a new week.

Faltering global growth also hit Asian stocks which succumbed to seven-month lows, while crude oil prices were pinned near a four year furrow.

Back home the Footsie actually recovered to close up 26.27 points to 6366.24, buoyed by the miners.

Anglo American was the top stock up nearly 5pc or 62.5p to 1388p, while Randgold Resources lifted 184p to 4381p and Rio Tinto climbed 125p to 3090p.

News that the Government has organised for passengers to be screened from the ebola virus at Heathrow did little to reassure investors.

Airlines and travel groups were struck down. British Airways owner International Airlines Group was down 1.3p to 324.1p, Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels fell 30p to 2165p, and TUI, parent to Thomson holidays, lost 8.4p, falling to 335.4p. Carnival was down 52p to 2155p. Coincidentally it was medical products maker Synergy Health which was a star performer after it announced an agreed bid.

The firm which sterilises medical equipment agreed a takeover offer worth £1.2bn from Americans based rival Steris sending shares up 31.43 per cent or 440p to 1840p.

It seems the main motivation for Steris is to incorporate the business in the UK to benefit from our lower 25 per cent tax rate.

Other fallers included, Arm Holdings which makes computer chips for the Apple iPhone.

It was down 2.43 per cent or 20.5p to 822p falling in the wake of the big losses seen on America’s Nasdaq index on Friday which comprises mostly of technology stocks.

Thorntons, maker of chocolates, also fell 4 per cent, or 4p to 95p, a 12-month low after sales at its commercial arm which supplies supermarkets fell 12.8 per cent to £20.8million over the past quarter.

Taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2791402/market-report-embattled-tesco-teetering-dangerously-close-edge-break-up.html

Here's the 6-month chart: