Property writedown drags Tesco to worst ever loss

[LONDON] Britain's biggest retailer Tesco posted the worst annual loss in its 96-year history on Wednesday after writing down the value of its stores by 4.7 billion pounds (S$9.5 billion).

Also hurt by an accounting scandal and sliding sales due to pressure from discounters and a brutal price war, the supermarket made a statutory pretax loss of 6.38 billion pounds in the year to Feb. 28.

Tesco's trading profit was 1.4 billion pounds, in line with company guidance but less than half of the 3.3 billion pounds made the year before and a third straight year of decline.

The firm also revealed it had net debt of 8.5 billion pounds and a net pension deficit of 3.9 billion pounds.

The results highlight the work needed to mend Tesco's finances under new boss Dave Lewis.

REUTERS