Supermarket chain Tesco is facing a damages claim of more than £100m from a group of 124 institutional funds in the UK.

The funds allege the company lost money due to irregularities in accounting.

Tesco embellished its profits two years ago, reported BBC.

The case was filed Stewarts Law firm at the High Court in London early this week.

"The mis-statement of profits, leading to a dramatic collapse in the Tesco share price, caused substantial damage to many shareholders."

Bentham Europe chief investment officer Jeremy Marshall was quoted by The Guardian as saying: “The mis-statement of profits, leading to a dramatic collapse in the Tesco share price, caused substantial damage to many shareholders who manage money for thousands of investors.

“Investors have a right to rely on statements made by companies to ensure that they correctly allocate capital.

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"The claim will assert that Tesco’s mis-statements are in clear breach of its obligations under the Financial Services and Markets Act and investors must be compensated.”

Tesco stated that its earnings in September 2014 had been overstated by £263m, which was revised to £326m when the supermarket included earlier accounts.

The overstated earnings figure was due to recording payments from suppliers before the money was due.

The accounting scandal damaged the company's share price, which has since seen a drop by around 20%.