New Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis this morning said that property would be an “important consideration” in the firm’s strategic review of the business following its confirmation this morning of a £263m overstatement of its profits.
Lewis said that the chain, which reported a 46.6% decline in pretax profit to £783m in the six months ended 23 August, paid an annual rent bill of around £1.4bn and that the business’s “property position was a key and important consideration” in the future of the firm.
He added that the strategic review of the business, announced in its interim results, would be a full review of the entire company and would seek to release value from its portfolio.
“We will keep all options open to us,” said Lewis. “Never say never, but we think there are significant opportunities to extract value from the business we have. We will go there first before looking at other opportunities.”
He responded to speculation over a rights issue saying that it was not an option that Tesco was looking at today, reinforcing the point that the review of the firm would be focused on extracting value from the current business.
