Tesco sued for £150m by shareholders – here's why

Tesco is facing a £150m lawsuit from 60 shareholders who claim they lost money due to the grocer’s accounting scandal in 2014.

Tesco’s value took a £2bn hit when the grocer revealed that it had overstated its profits by £263m.

This led to investors including law firm Stewarts Law, along with litigation funders Bentham Europe, launching a legal action against the firm.

Jeremy Marshall, chief investment officer of Bentham, said: “This is the first wave. There will be a second series of investors that will join a bit later. A lot of people thought this case would never get off the ground.”

“The SFO felt it had credible evidence [to bring charges] allowing investors a sufficient level of comfort,” Marshall added.

Carl Rogberg, the former finance director of Tesco UK, Christopher Bush, the former managing director of Tesco UK, and John Scouler, the former commercial director for food, have all been charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting.

Tesco did not comment on the claim.