Regulator begins investigation over Tesco profits

Tesco has suspended another executive as financial regulators investigate how the supermarket overstated profits by £250m.

The Financial Times reports that commercial director Kevin Grace has become the latest senior figure to be suspended.

Four senior executives, including UK managing director Chris Bush, were asked to step aside two weeks ago when Tesco revealed that its most recent profits warning to the City in August was much too optimistic.

The company's new chief executive, Dave Lewis, has stressed that the suspensions are not a disciplinary matter, but are designed to enable a "full and frank" investigation into the profit warning.

Supermarket giant Tesco says it will "co-operate fully" with the investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority into how it overstated first half-year profits by £250m.

"Tesco will continue to co-operate fully with the Financial Conduct Authority and other relevant authorities considering this matter," the company said in a statement today.

The company announced on September 22 that it had overstated first-half profit by £250 million - effectively its third profit warning in two months.

It suspended four senior executives and launched its own investigation.

Read: Tesco suspends four executives after overstating profits by £250m

The Financial Conduct Authority has begun a full investigation into Tesco after the supermarket overstated its half-year profits by £250m, the company has announced.

Read: Tesco suspends four executives after overstating profits by £250m

Troubled supermarket giant Tesco has delayed opening a £22m new store in Cambridgeshire.

The 47,000 sq ft store in Chatteris will be boarded up until further notice, a spokesperson for the chain said.

It comes after Tesco announced it would be delaying the opening of a new store in Immingham, Lincolnshire.

An investigation has been launched into allegations Tesco-owned Homeplus in South Korea sold customer information to insurance companies.

Former and current executives of Homeplus, which has more than 400 stores in South Korea, have been asked to remain in the country while investigations continue.

It has been reported that the information was collected during in-store prize giveaways and sold to insurance companies for millions of pounds.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We can confirm our South Korean business, Homeplus is under investigation regarding the handling of customer data. "We take the protection of our customers’ data extremely seriously and are co-operating with the investigation."

The opening of a £22 million Tesco store has been delayed - the second such "delayed opening" announced by the troubled supermarket chain this month.

The 47,000 square foot superstore in Chatteris, near Ely in Cambridgeshire, will be boarded up "until further notice", a spokesman confirmed.

As part of the development, a river bed has been moved, an underpass built and a roundabout installed, sparking numerous complaints.

The Tesco spokesman said there was no timeline for the development "beyond that it is delayed".

Tesco shares fell by 2% or 4.7p to 198.2p as the markets opened today.

The fall came despite news that former M&S finance boss Alan Stewart would be starting immediately in his role as chief financial officer with the chain rather than in December

Tesco shares plunged to an 11-year low on Monday after it revealed it may have overstated profits by £250 million.

Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna said the crisis at Tesco is a "national interest issue" that will affect the whole British business community.

He said it was important to establish whether an accounting error which inflated the supermarket giant's profits by £250m was an isolated incident or part of a pattern.

Tesco has suspended four executives while an investigation takes place into the incident.

The new chief financial officer of Tesco will begin his role three months early with the supermarket chain after it issued a shock profit warning.

Alan Stewart will start with Tesco immediately rather than at the beginning of December after it revealed an accounting issue had seen the chain overstate its first half profit forecast by £250m.

He was previously in the same role at Marks & Spencer but left for the post with Tesco in July.

Tesco's unexpected profit warning sent its shares to an 11-year low today after the supermarket warned it may have overstated profits by £250 million.

The revelation has prompted the suspension of four senior executives and will be investigated independently by Deloitte.

ITV News Economics Editor Richard Edgar reports: