Activist investor Knight Vinke has been gradually increasing its holding in Kesa Electricals, taking its stake to 21.3% last week.
It bought more than 1.6m shares on Wednesday, a week or so after it snapped up 2m shares in the electrical retailer. Earlier this month Kesa completed the disposal of its UK business Comet to investment firm OpCapita, paying a £50m dowry for taking the loss-making business off its hands. The move left the company to concentrate on its Darty business in France, and was backed by Knight Vinke, which said at the time:
This transaction substantially de-risks Kesa and opens the way for Darty, Kesa's remaining business to return to the French stock market where Darty is the undisputed market leader...whilst leaving Kesa shareholders with a residual interest in the upside to be earned from the turnaround of Comet.
Kesa shares lost more than half their value last year, and Knight Vinke is believed to have originally bought in at above 100p a share so it looks like it is averaging down. News of the investment group's purchases has helped push them up 1.2p to 77.45p, a 1.57% increase.
