Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes have lined up to advise on the sale of struggling UK electrical retailer Comet Group to private equity house OpCapita for just £2.

Slaughters is advising Comet parent company Kesa Electricals on the sale of Comet's stores as well as subsidiaries, fielding a team including corporate partner Simon Robinson, finance partner Andrew McClean, tax partner Graham Iversen and pension and employment partner Eddie Codrington.

Macfarlanes is advising turnaround specialists OpCapita on the proposed acquisition, with corporate partners Stephen Drewitt and Ian Martin leading.

Meanwhile, SJ Berwin advised the management at Comet with tax partner Stephen Pevsner and corporate associate Andrew Wingfield leading the firm's team.

The deal was announced yesterday (9 November), with Kesa set to inject £50m investment into Comet as part of the agreement, and OpCapita injecting £30m in equity. Comet will also have access to a £40m asset-backed lending facility.

The sale comes after Kesa announced a strategic review of Comet in June 2011, looking both at a disposal of the retailer as well as restoring profitability in the medium term. Kesa said that while €1.8bn (£1.5bn) of its €5.9bn (£5bn) revenues for 2010-11 was attributable to Comet Group, it was also responsible for an operating loss of €30.2m (£25.8m).

Commenting on the deal Drewitt said: "Given the market backdrop and a challenging environment for M&A generally, the execution of this transaction is a real success story.

"Our expertise across a number of key areas – including international fund structures and cross border tax planning – meant that we were again able to assist a key client with a complex transaction in a difficult macroeconomic environment."

The sale is expected to be completed on 3 February 2012, with Kesa to retain liability for Comet's defined benefit pension scheme. The company's £50m investment will also enable it to benefit from any sale of Comet by OpCapita, if it sells for more than £70m.

Comet appointed Eversheds as its sole UK adviser for a three-year period starting in 2008.