HMV offloads 121 Canadian stores in £2m deal with Hilco
HMV has agreed to sell its Canadian business for £2m to the retail restructuring specialist Hilco UK.
The struggling retailer has 121 stores in Canada. As part of the deal, HMV has agreed to retain some of the debt owed to it by HMV Canada.
HMV is in the process of restructuring, having sold the book chain Waterstone’s to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m in May. It has been badly hit by the predominance of music downloads. HMV chief executive Simon Fox said that the two sales and a reorganisation of debt meant that the group was “focusing on clear and tightly defined plans for transforming HMV into a broad-based entertainment business”.
Last year, HMV Canada made a profit of £2.3m on sales of £222m.
On Friday, Hilco agreed to sell its Habitat brand and three stores to Home Retail Group and put the rest of the chain into administration.
“We are pleased to confirm the sale of HMV Canada to Hilco UK, and plan to immediately begin the next chapter in the growth of our business in the Canadian marketplace,” said president of HMV Canada, Nick Williams.
HMV Canada has been voted the country’s music retailer of the year for the past 19 years.