Asda linked with HMV bid
SUPERMARKET group Asda is reported to be looking at buying the collapsed high street music chain HMV.
The Leeds-based retailer, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, was today said to have held talks with HMV’s administrators Deloitte about a possible bid for the CD, DVD and games store chain.
Restructuring firm Hilco has already been linked with an offer for HMV but now Asda could be entering the fray with a bid, which would provide a lifeline to the 2,400 staff that still work at HMV’s 120 remaining stores after it went into administration in January.
Unless a deal can be struck to sell the chain, it is understood administrators will be forced to close up to 110 of the remaining HMV stores.
Experts say a deal for some or all of HMV’s remaining 120 stores has to be struck within a fortnight when HMV faces a huge quarterly rent bill.
Reports suggest that Asda would not be looking to buy the stores to convert into smaller supermarkets – just as Yorkshire rival Morrisons recently did with a number of the Blockbuster video stores – but to provide it with a platform to sell products via HMV stores on the high street and to use the brand within its superstores.
Global CD sales have fallen from £19.9bn in 2000 to less than £7bn. But HMV was still generating more than £900m of sales a year across its business in 2012.
Asda launched DISNEY concessions in three stores last autumn.
