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TESCO has revealed a ballooning pension deficit as property write-downs and changing business practices push it into the biggest loss in its history.

Analysts at Barclays, one of the supermarket’s house brokers, predicted an increase in the retirement scheme’s shortfall to a record £5bn. Deutsche Bank, Tesco’s other house broker, said the chain could announce injections of £250m a year into the fund, although analysts said the full picture would not become clear until next year, after an actuarial valuation and consultation on the closure of Tesco’s defined benefit scheme.

The widening hole in Tesco’s pension pot, which has 350,000 members, including 203,000 current staff, is expected to round off the worst set of results in the supermarket’s 96-year history.

Dave Lewis, who took over as chief executive from Philip Clarke last September, is forecast to slash £3bn from the value of Tesco’s property portfolio after

Source : The Sunday Times

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