Asda shares draft results with investors after audit delays

ASDA has been forced to share draft results with investors after its auditor failed to sign off company accounts, The Telegraph can reveal.

The supermarket’s bosses took the unusual decision to share a private presentation with lenders late last month, during which Asda revealed unaudited profits of £248m from revenues of £25.6bn for 2023. Despite swinging to a profit after a £112m loss in 2022, earnings were dented by £441m of finance costs borne from the retailer’s £4.2bn debt pile.

The delay comes after KPMG replaced EY as the company’s auditor.

A source close to Asda said investors were updated every quarter. It is understood that publication of Asda’s figures is not expected until later this month.

It is the latest headache for brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital, all of whom are co-owners of Asda. Asda has been burdened by increasing finance costs triggered by high levels of debt since the Issas and TDR bought the business for £6.8bn in 2021.

A document seen by The Telegraph shows that finance costs remain a problem, as they jumped from £101m to £157m in the final quarter of 2023.

It has coincided with concerns around Asda’s trading performance. It now has just 13.8pc of the grocery market, compared with 14.8pc in early 2021. Sales at Asda were up just 0.8pc in the 12 weeks to March 23 on a year earlier. An Asda spokesman said: “We made strong progress against our strategy in 2023 with significant investment in the business to drive long-term growth while continuing to repay debt.”

A source close to Asda said: “We are fully on track with this year’s audit, which will be in line with the finalised accounts we put out at the end of April – in both 2023 and 2022. When we sent out our results to media last year in March, they were unaudited.”