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).

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:

Exec - the Tesco element apart, the rest of it is literally yesterday's news - look at ARM today +3.4%, THT +2.1%, IAG +4.2% ... perhaps a bit more editing! :-)

Skinny

Hmmm? Thanks for telling me the non-Tesco stuff at the end of that whole article is not pertinent to today's movements.

I merely took the whole article from the today's Mail's business/money section, which obviously reports on yesterdays happenings - possibly, but not for certain sure, these are at or up to the time of the article's update.

It would be inappropriate for me to edit the article. What I do have to do, is give my source for it, so that its validity and accuracy of what i've copied and pasted can be checked, should someone want to do that. The author also deserves credit for his writing of it.

:-)

The TESCO Bank is only worth what it is now because about 90% who bank there are Tesco customers , without the Tesco stores how many would bank with them ?

Exec - sorry boredom is an annoying sidekick :-)

LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the billionaire
chairman and chief executive of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway
BRKa.N , has cut his vehicle's stake in troubled British grocer
Tesco TSCO.L to below 3 percent, according to a stock market
notification.
The filing, published on Thursday, said that on Oct. 13
Berkshire reduced its Tesco holding to "less than 3 percent".
Earlier this month Buffett said Berkshire's investment in
Tesco was a "huge mistake."
Berkshire had a roughly 3.96 percent stake in Tesco's
shares, according to an early May regulatory filing.
Tesco is reeling from an accountancy scandal and a downturn
in trading. Its shares have fallen 48 percent so far this year.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/tsco/11171562/Tesco-suspends-three-more-executives.html

Tesco staff 'misled auditors’ over black hole
Source reveals the practices that led to Tesco's £250m accounting shortfall

By Graham Ruddick7:15PM BST 18 Oct 2014

Comments: 19 Comments

The investigation into the £250m accounting scandal at Tesco is understood to have uncovered evidence that a “small group” of people within Britain’s biggest retailer deliberately misled its auditors and accountants to flatter its financial results.
A senior source close to the investigation said the practices had been going on for “more than a year” on a smaller scale, but ramped up in the last six months as the pressure on Tesco sales increased.
Tesco will, on Thursday, provide the first details into the £250m accounting scandal that has rocked Britain’s biggest private employer.
The Telegraph understands the scandal involves Tesco booking supplier contributions that were conditional on hitting sales targets that it was not going to reach.
It is understood that a “small group” of employees, realising these sales targets would not be hit, struck deals with suppliers to still make these payments by offering benefits in the next financial period. These benefits were kept secret and in the worst-case scenario involved Tesco actually paying money back to the supplier in the next period.
The source said the situation at Tesco was “very serious” and was “not an accounting issue” but the result of “inappropriate behaviour”. The source added: “There was a deliberate intention not to be upfront with the auditors.”
The revelation that the practice has been going on for more than six months will concern Tesco investors, who have already seen the value of the company fall by almost half in 2014. However, they will be relieved if the evidence suggests there was not a widespread issue within the culture of the company.
Sources within Tesco have confirmed there was concern among the company’s finance team and auditors for some time over its commercial income, because it was remaining flat while sales were falling.
PwC, Tesco’s auditors, took a detailed look at the retailer’s commercial income earlier this year and warned there was a “risk of manipulation”. However, on the basis of the information available, Tesco’s accounts were given a clean bill of health.
The issue with Tesco’s commercial income was revealed to Dave Lewis, the new chief executive, by a whistleblower in the company’s finance department. This prompted Mr Lewis to alert investors and bring in Deloitte and Freshfields to lead an investigation. Eight executives, including UK boss Chris Bush, have been suspended.
The early findings of this inquiry will form part of Tesco’s interim results this week. The investigation is still ongoing, but Mr Lewis said in a memo to staff that Tesco will provide a “clear and accurate indication of our income for the first half of the year”.
The evidence uncovered by Deloitte and Freshfields is likely to provide grounds for the City regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Reporting Council, to press ahead with their investigations into Tesco.
Shares in Tesco are down by 48pc year-to-date, and last week it emerged that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, one of the company’s biggest shareholders, is selling down its stake.
Following the discovery of the £250m blackhole, Tesco is expected to report trading of roughly £850m for the six months to the end of August, almost half the £1.6bn reported in the same period last year.
This will be the first set of financial results to be presented by Mr Lewis, who replaced Philip Clarke as chief executive on September 1. However, the former Unilever executive is not expected to reveal a strategic overhaul of Tesco. Instead, he only intends to inform the market after changes – such as a cut in prices – have been made.
There has been speculation in the City that Mr Lewis could announce a rights issue or asset sales – such as the disposal of Tesco’s business in South Korea – to shore up the balance sheet. However, this is unlikely.
Tesco declined to comment.

Here are the Comments thus far - and "very interesting too" are some of them:

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Reboon • 23 minutes ago
Through chance, I've noticed something which must be costing Tesco a fortune. It's something which benefits the observant customer. I wonder how many other people have noticed it.

What I have noticed must certainly be a factor in money "vanishing" in an undetermined way. Maybe they think staff are stealing. I don't even want to give a clue in case Tesco realise. I can only assume they haven't realised as it surely wouldn't be possible if they knew :-D
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Graham • 28 minutes ago
PWC identified a “risk of manipulation” but didn't fully investigate that risk, sufficient to satisfy themselves that nothing was wrong? If they did properly investigate then why did they find nothing; if they didn't properly investigate then they are guilty of professional misconduct. So, it is either an inadequate investigation or an inadequate investigation. Guilty as charged, m'lud.
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beatonthedonis • 39 minutes ago
If they can lie to a big-four accounting firm and their investors over £250m, imagine what they could do when it comes to what you put in your mouth.
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bill40 • an hour ago
Jolly good the "a few rotten apples defence". A report by Citibank in 2010 had already drawn attention to the systematic corruption that we now know exists. So four years documented and many more to come I don't doubt.
Anyone falling for this guff deserves shooting.
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Tsavor • an hour ago
Power corrupts and Tesco and it's employees have for years believed they have had absolute power over their suppliers. Stories of MD's of suppliers providing the goods and doing the cooking at category buyers annual barbecues, might just be urban myths or then they could be true.

I've seen with my own eyes letters and invoices from Tesco demanding payment just for the privilege of doing business with them, and I've been out of the food industry for 10 years, so nothing new here.
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Mary1958 Tsavor • 18 minutes ago
I think the practise of "seller contributions" is more shocking than Tesco fiddling the books.
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taguntumi Tsavor • an hour ago
Amen.
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Jeff Kaye • an hour ago
There is a cultural problem at Tesco that needs to be solved - not just accounting and not just a few people - why were those "few people" so focused on doing wrong? It has been a corrupting culture. http://jeffkaye.wordpress.com/... ????
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NeedaSpliff • 2 hours ago
Jail the Tesco managers and the Partner responsible for the "independent" audit..
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Alan Llandrindod Wells NeedaSpliff • an hour ago
What about the directors?
It happened in their companies on their watch.
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NeedaSpliff Alan Llandrindod Wells • an hour ago
Agree
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theresap • 2 hours ago
This article has been placed to deflect attention from the auditors who knew exactly what was going on but it was a good fee
5 • Reply•Share ›
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davidraynes • 2 hours ago
If a small group inside the Company deliberately conspired to rig the figures (and thus the share price) and this action deceived the public and created a false market (which the insiders were able to understand and take advantage of), that looks like fraud.

It looks very much as if some collars need to be felt and Inspector Knacker needs to get moving.

How many more knew?

The auditors have not done well either. same old thing one suspects, the business is their master and paying their bill,
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Alan Llandrindod Wells davidraynes • an hour ago
Think of the auditors that did the bust, price fixing, money laundering, sanctions busting, fraudulent banks.
Then think big 4. They never noticed?
Nuff said.
All the stores directors will claim that they did not know what was happening in their company, on their watch.
The Establishment will close ranks, and some clerk will end up in court.
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MCFC1894 • 2 hours ago
Every fiddle helps!
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Guest • 2 hours ago
"Of course the auditors will conclude that Tesco misled the auditors."

Agree. Auditors don't look hard enough, usually the person actually doing the audit is 22 and straight out of university.

Having worked for major suppliers to Tesco, it was not an uncommon occurrence to get mugged at their year end, with promises of better shelving or better promotional slots next year. The amounts were rather large and we weren't their biggest suppliers.

Paying out on a over rider when they didn't reach their targets, yeah seen that many times.

It's been happening for years, the fact that they claim it is just the last six months makes me laugh. All that's happened is that they are finding it increasingly hard to deliver on promises to suppliers in the following years.

One of my fondest/happy memories was kicking Sommerfield as they went down... a reward for the pleasure of working with them post acquisition (the up they forecast).
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Shaun Power • 2 hours ago
There is a very fine line between illegality and what became, over time, typical Tesco practice. That line, was, is (possibly), wafer thin. Quite frankly they throughly deserve the kicking they're currently getting.
We worked for them as a supplier for 25 years...and incrementally it became worse and worse until we'd had enough and when we finally could no longer meet their 'terms' they fired us. What a relief.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.
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Moneycircus • 3 hours ago
Of course the auditors will conclude that Tesco misled the auditors.

Having blamed Tesco, it is mutually convenient that the auditors should assure us this involved just a "few bad apples" on Tesco's shelves.

The auditors' evidence appears to confirm what several observers have suggested - that the statements were distorted by deals with suppliers.

Since Tesco's M.O. is to screw suppliers into the ground, we may suspect that the real misinformation here does not relate to promising "benefits" to suppliers.

Rather some more complex misdemeanor is likely to have been involved given that the methods Tesco uses with its suppliers are, exactly, complex.

I'd like others to help me with information but with wine it goes something like this:

You, Mr Winery, have a good reputation for your wine and we'd like to list you. But your wine is too expensive. We'd like you to make a cheaper version for Tesco. Of course you and we shall brand it as the regular product.

You commit to producing a certain number (in the 100,000 of cases) at this price point and we'll take it.

Now that's just the beginning. What money changes hands, and in what direction, is another question.
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WetThrust Moneycircus • an hour ago
This is certainly true. I bought a bottle of Valpolicella Amarone the other day from a major chain that had a very cheap cork on what was a £20 bottle of wine. I contacted the supplier as I thought it was counterfeit. But it turned out it was a special run. As you say, a cheaper product trading on the reputation of the regular product. I wonder who got to pocket the excess profit on what was really only a £7 bottle at best. UK supermarkets have a corrupt culture that would not be unrecognised in Africa.
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Alan Llandrindod Wells Moneycircus • 2 hours ago
All the big retailers use their oligopoly power to play this game. And worse.
I like your use of the term "benefits" sarcastically.

Wait for revelations at them all, including the so-called ethical ones.
They issue long questionaires saying suppliers must adhere to ethical guidelines then purchase regardless of ethics.
The Chinese use state employees to fill these forms in and wet themselves laughing.

Confiscation of so-called "marketing" or "promotion" money, which the supplier then has to try and retrieve ,if he has the guts, are standard. These can be steep when extra profit is required by the retailer to flatter the accounts and build "so-called" profits.
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Smells like a cover- up.

always presupposing that the overall market recovery continues at least for the time being, the following may help tesco sp ...... imo, only worth a quick trade as i really don't trust the markets for even the short term ....



A shortfall in half-year profits at Tesco which plunged Britain's biggest retailer into crisis is next week expected to be disclosed to have been smaller than initially feared.
Sky News understands that the supermarket chain plans to announce alongside its first-half results on Thursday that it had previously overstated earnings by between £200m and £250m.
The final figure was likely to be somewhere close to the middle of that range, a banking source said.

Still going to be an awful set of figures announced.

chairman Richard Broadbent - The axe has been sharpened.

He has been under pressure to resign for a month now. The Auditors for Tesco had given warnings of accounting methods for the commercial deals with suppliers months before the sh-t hit the fan.