Electricals giant aims to broaden finance base
Comet owner Kesa Electricals is to raise capital with an unrated Euro-denominated bond, to be issued by Kesa International plc and guaranteed by Kesa and Kesa Holdings.

It will be issued following an investor roadshow organised by Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan Cazenove in Europe and the UK, beginning on January 30.

The company said that any issue would be used to redeem existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes, and is 'an important step towards broadening Kesa's financing base and extending the company's debt maturity profile'.

Last week, Kesa Electricals revealed a slight fall in sales and said its French furniture business BUT struggled over Christmas.

Like-for-like sales at the group fell 0.3 per cent overall, with UK chain Comet experiencing a 2 per cent sales dip over the period from November 1 to January 8.

French electricals chain Darty experienced like-for-like sales growth of 2.5 per cent. However, BUT had a like-for-like sales fall of 8.6 per cent.