Tesco says new accounting standard will not have economic impact

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) , Britain's biggest retailer, said on Friday a new accounting standard related to the treatment of leases, will change the way assets and liabilities are presented but will not have an economic impact on the group.

It also said the introduction of the new IFRS 16 standard would have no bearing on the plans or financial ambitions Tesco (Swiss: TSCO.SW - news) detailed in October 2016.

The new standard seeks to align the presentation of leased assets more closely to owned assets.

Tesco said it has no effect on how the business is run, nor on cash flows for the group.

But it does have a significant impact on the way the assets, liabilities and the income statement of the group are presented, as well as the classification of cash flows relating to lease contracts.

The new standard is effective for all accounting periods beginning on or after Jan. 1 2019.

That means Tesco's first reported accounting period under IFRS 16 will be its 2019-20 financial year, which runs from Feb. 24 2019 to Feb. 29 2020.

It said its first half 2018-19 results reported last October, restated for IFRS 16, will be the comparative numbers for Tesco's first published IFRS 16 accounts in October 2019.

Tesco is due to report its full year 2018-18 results on April 10. These results prepared on an IFRS 16 basis will be published shortly after. (Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)