LONDON: Tesco rushed its new chief financial officer into place yesterday, trying to shore up a leadership team badly damaged by the accounting mistake revealed on Monday that knocked millions off the company’s profits and billions from its share price.
Britain’s biggest retailer hired Alan Stewart from Marks & Spencer early in the summer but he was not due to start until December. Tesco’s — also new — chief executive Dave Lewis said yesterday that M&S boss Marc Bolland had now agreed to release Stewart early.
The 54-year-old must now set about restoring the credibility of Tesco’s finances after Monday’s revelation that the firm’s first half profit forecast had been overstated by $409m.
That news — effectively Tesco’s third profit warning in two months — along with the suspension of four senior executives and the company’s decision to call in investigators wiped £2bn off Tesco’s stock market value.
Its shares added another 4 percent to Monday’s 12 percent drop after industry sales data yesterday showed no signs of recovery in its key UK market.
Stewart is expected to immediately start preparing Tesco’s interim results, the date of which was pushed back on Monday from October 1 to October 23.
Reuters
