Directors of electricals group Kesa are confident that the sale of UK business Comet will go ahead as planned.
Kesa has agreed to sell troubled Comet to private investment company OpCapita for £2.
However, reports that OpCapita had yet to fully secure funding for the deal prompted speculation about how certain it was that a transaction would proceed.
Speaking as Kesa issued first-half results, chairman David Newlands was confident that the sale will go through, subject to approval by shareholders.
He said: “They [OpCapita] have their facility and finance and we have no reason not to complete the transaction.”
Losses at Comet deepened in the half-year to October 31. The business suffered a retail loss of €25.7m, versus €6.4m in the comparable period last year.
Comet’s sales, already reported when the proposed sale to OpCapita was unveiled, fell 17.9% to €683m – a like-for-like decline of 18.6%.
Gross margin was up 70 basis points as Comet’s sales mix was shifted towards categories such as small domestic appliances and accessories.
At group level Kesa, which also owns businesses including Darty in France, posted a retail loss of €9.2m compared to a profit of €32.4m last time. Sales fell 6.2% to €2.57bn.
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