Tesco UK FD leaves in wake of £263m overstatement

TESCO has parted company with suspended UK FD Carl Rogberg following the stricken supermarket’s £263m accounting overstatement in September.

Rogberg, along with three other senior executives, was suspended in the wake of the error, and has now been asked to step down.

Kevin Grace, group commercial director and John Scouler, UK food commercial director, also follow Rogberg out the door, the Financial Times reports.

A spokesman for Tesco offered no comment on the development.

The move allows new chief executive Dave Lewis to make sweeping changes to the supermarket’s UK senior management as he seeks to arrest the company’s slide.

He already persuaded new CFO Alan Stewart to take up his post two months early in attempt to steer the retailer away from the finance and credibility crisis gripping it.

Lewis announced in September that a £1.1bn forecast of first-half profits released weeks earlier had been overstated by more than £200m.

Tesco said last month that the overstatement was actually £263m.

Since then, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office has launched a criminal investigation into alleged accounting irregularities at Tesco.

The profit overstatement represents one of the worst episodes in the company’s history, plunging its share price to an 11-year low.