HMV in £53m deal to sell Waterstone’s
HMV has agreed a deal to offload its Waterstone’s book chain to a fund headed by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m.
Mamut already owns six per cent of HMV which has been struggling as downloads have hit its CD business, while sales at online retailers like Amazon have also taken off.
The sale to A&NN Capital Fund Management still needs shareholder approval, but HMV said the deal should be finalised by the end of June.
HMV announced in March that it was exploring options to sell the business.
It has estimated debts of £130m and last month it said it expected annual profits to be about 25 per cent lower than it had hoped.