Category: Comet

Revenues at Comet electrical stores have been confirmed to have fallen by massive 22% in the last three months leading to more specualtion about the retailer’s future.

The London Evening Standard reports this afternoon that it has emerged today that Kesa Electricals’ attempt to sell off its Comet chain look increasingly likely to be scrapped.

Reuters reports that a small number of turnaround specialists have lodged offers for loss-making electricals chain Comet in a process likely to realise little, if any, cash for parent Kesa , say people familiar with the matter.

The Express reported at the weekend that bids for 249-store electricals chain Comet are due this Wednesday signalling a likley break-up of parent group Kesa.

Bloomberg reports that Kesa Electricals may need a specialist restructuring firm to buy its U.K. Comet chain or to discard more of the unprofitable unit’s stores to placate activist investor Knight Vinke Asset Management LLC, analysts say.

Since the publication of a blog post on Sky News by Mark Kleinman the rumours circulating about the sell off of the beleaguered electrical retailer Comet have been set alight leading to further speculation that the retailer will, at some point, be sold off to the highest bidder. It would appear t…

As reported in the forums a few days ago, electrical retailer Comet which is owned by Kesa is to close fourteen UK service centres. The move will likely see the loss of around 114 jobs and a consultation period has begun on Monday over the redundancies.

More than twenty jobs could be lost at Comet after it announced today it was closing its Croydon service centre. A 30-day consultation with the centre’s twenty four employees has begun, but the company admitted their positions “may not be viable”.

Comet parent company Kesa Electricals has warned of a full-year loss for its UK operation after festive sales plunged by 7.3%. Kesa blamed strong competition and the extreme weather for its like-for-like sales disappointment between November 1 and January 18.

Electrical retailer Kesa Electricals said Thursday that Knight Vinke Asset Management LLC for itself and on behalf of other Knight Vinke companies raised its stake to 58.72 million of the company’s voting rights, or 11.09%. Kesa of course own the UK chain of Comet stores.