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Comet to be sold for just £2

Troubled retailer to be bought by holding company which will attempt to turn the retailer's fortunes around

Finance director viewed through rifle sight
Another retailer in the firing line as profits crash

Comet is to be sold for £2 by its parent company, the Anglo-French electrical goods retailer Kesa.

Another victim of the increasingly tough economic times for retailers, Kesa will sell Comet to a holding company, Hailey, with the aim of turning the loss making retailer around.

However Comet customers will still be able to rely on their warranties and servicing because Kesa will transfer a 73m euro (£62m) support fund to the UK company.

The sale of Comet, whose revenues crashed by 22 per cent over the summer,  comes just two days after it was announced that Carphone Warehouse is pulling out of the joint venture with US retailer Best Buy and closing all 11 of its Best Buys stores in the UK.

Hailey is a group of companies, which will be advised by retailer turnaround company OpCapita. It has already managed to attract £30m of private equity funding, £50m from Kesa and raised a £40m loan with the plan of keeping the retailer alive as a going concern for around 18 months while a buyer is looked for Comet

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comet

about time something was done,just try taking something back or repair at comet,we bought a all remote control there a few yrs ago,took it back as we changed r minds,it had not been opened and was still sealed at the edge with their cellotape,the guy on the till opened it took it out of the box,put it back differently and accused us of opening it,but after some agry bargy sent us to customer services were the chap said u have opened it,so we found a witness was saw what the cahp on the till had done and went and got him,so they eventually gave us r money back,hasnt shop there since

Posted by Edgar Mills, 09 Nov 2011

   

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