Comet, the ailing electrical retailer, officially entered into administration placing 6,600 jobs at risk on Friday with Deloitte taking the role of administrator for the business.
Gift Vouchers & Stock On Order
Events have led to many problems for customers as all gift vouchers have been suspended with no word yet on how the administrator will deal with outstanding vouchers that customers bought in good faith in order to purchase goods from Comet.
Multiple sources have explained that, should Comet enter administration as it now officially has done, then these gift or credit vouchers may well be completely worthless and it is very unlikely that they will be valid.
The same applies to stock that is ordered but not yet delivered. If suppliers refuse to supply Comet than they may well not be a position to fulfill people’s orders meaning that, for both paid for ordered stock and vouchers, that the customers would become creditors of the company and are probably very unlikely to ever see any goods or cash back.
The BBC reports as follows:
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The administrators are reviewing this situation but as yet, no answers on a way forward.
However in previous similar cases, such as MFI among others, customers were left with nowhere to go with many people losing hundreds of pounds.
Comet Creditors Include OpCapita
In a report in the Financial Times it has come to light that OpCapita through a subsidiary, Hailey Acquisitions Ltd, stand to lose around £30 million that they invested into the Comet business as part of the deal with Darty. Through that company went the OpCapita money, the £50 million dowry from Darty and a further £40 million of asset backed lending.
It transpires that whilst there may be around £120 million worth of stock in Comet only about half of that is actually owned by Comet, the rest belonging to suppliers who have been said to be recalling their stocks and some stock has been reported to have been removed last week, before Deloitte was appointed. This may well explain the reports from multiple sources that staff have been removing stock from stores and sending it back to central warehousing.
Comet Is Still For Sale
If you fancy buying a failing electrical retail chain, you can as Deloitte are pushing to sell the Comet business.
Deloitte is said to be “urgently” seeking a buyer for the business and does say that it has had some interest from within the UK and from abroad.
That said, experts still believe that it is unlikely that any party would want to buy the whole of the Comet business and that the winding up of the business is the most likely outcome.
It has been said that there may be value in the Comet brand and website, notably no mention has been made of the physical stores giving rise to the notion that the business will most likely be split up and sold off in chunks. We would not expect a buyer to come forward for the retail stores and we would expect these to be closed in time.