Crisis-stricken HMV to sell its 125-Canadian stores to Hilco for £2 million
27 Jun 2011
Crisis-stricken HMV has agreed to sell its 125-Canadian stores to retail restructuring specialists Hilco Consumer Capital's private-equity arm, Valvo Capital Partners, for £2 million ($3.2 million).
The sale comes days after HMV sold its Waterstone's book chain to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, for £3 million.
Simon Fox, chief executive of HMV said, "The Board has fully explored the options available to it for HMV Canada, and believes that a sale to Hilco is the correct decision for the business at this time, whilst reducing the operating leverage in the continuing Group."
HMV Canada's first store opened in 1986, from which it has grown to become a Canadian entertainment market leader with 121 stores from Newfoundland to British Columbia, including flagship stores in Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as the hmv.ca website.
HMV Canada had launched in 2009 hmvdigital.ca, an MP3 digital music store offering over 10 million tracks for download, and in 2010 the HMV Pure loyalty scheme, which has attracted over 600,000 cardholders.
HMV has been named Canadian Music Retailer of the Year for the past 19 years, and has also been recognised as the Canadian Entertainment Network DVD Retailer of the Year.
