Tesco: What assets has it sold and what’s left at the checkout after £4bn South Korea Homeplus sale?
Tesco has bagged up another asset, adding a nice £4.2bn to its coffers from the sale of its South Korean Homeplus business to a consortium of investors, it was revealed today.
It's a major milestone in the supermarket's efforts at fixing its balance sheet – here's how it's progressing so far.
Bagged up
South Korea Homeplus
The £4bn Tesco has netted from the sale is no small number, but it is significantly at the lower end of expectations, which had been as high, perhaps ambitiously so, as £7bn.
That money – £3.35bn in cash – will go towards reducing its debt pile, which stands at just over £20bn, bringing it down to around £17.5bn and helping it on its way to escaping its "junk" status with ratings agencies.
The sale also reduces the spectre of a rights issue to raise cash, something boss Dave Lewis has been less than keen on in the past.
Receipt: £4.2bn
Blinkbox
Tesco waved goodbye to its digital entertainment business at the start of 2015 The three services – movie streaming, music streaming and ebooks – had been collected by ex-chief Philip Clarke in an effort to broaden its business and capitalise on the growth of digital. Those were unceremoniously broken up, with the movie part going to Talk Talk and music to Australian company Guvera, but less than six months later that collapsed into administration.
Both the movies and music businesses went for significantly less than they were originally acquired for, while the books business was shuttered completely after failing to find a buyer.
Receipt: est. £10m – £20m loss
Homeplus UK
Tesco announced the closure of its remaining Homeplus stores in the UK, signalling a retreat from non-food retailing here.
Having already closed 43 stores across the country, this has contributed to the supermarket taking a hit from property writedowns. The six store closures could add to that, along with potential costs from staff redundancies. The closures will help Tesco cut costs, however, saving on running costs and the potential to sell the store leases.
Receipt: Unknown.
Private jets
The retailer netted a pretty penny selling off its fleet of private jets – one of the first things to go under new boss and down-sizing supremo Dave Lewis. Bosses won't be missing trips to South Korea at least.
Receipt:
Gulfstream 550 x 2- est. £20m each
Cessna Citation x 2 – est. £14m each
Hawker 800 – est. £2m
Total: £66m
At the checkout
Dunnhumby
Dunnhumby, the data arm which created its Clubcard loyalty scheme, is another lucrative asset which could potentially put billions in Tesco's pocket.
Interested buyers include a host of private equity firms, media companies WPP and Nielsen, and even Google, which are clamouring at the chance of this money spinner. That's good news for the supermarket which may recoup more value than it has elsewhere. It may also consider retaining a stake to keep money coming in.
However, the estimated Dunnhumby price tag has been slashed since a sale was first considered at the start of the year. The value may have fallen as low as £700m – much lower than the widely reported £2bn – after a rejig of its US operations.
Price: est £700m – £2bn
Read more: Tesco share price dips on Dunnhumby and Korea deal discount troubles