HMV plans to call in administrators from Deloitte today after failing to agree on new terms for its debt during crisis discussions with banks and suppliers🙈 o﷽ver the weekend.
T🔯he 91-year-old UK entert🌊ainment retailer has struggled in the face of growing demand for digital downloads, and lenders couldn’t be convinced to offer it a new lifeline following continued poor sales over Christmas.
The move into administration puts some 4,300 jobs at risk. HMV said in a statement: "The board regrets to anﷺnounce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection and in the circumstance𓆉s therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect."
It’💦s expected that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding of Deloitte will be appointed as administrators,෴ and analysts expect them to find a taker for at least part of the company. Restructuring firm Hilco, which bought HMV Canada from its UK parent in 2011, is rumoured to be considering buying the group out of administration, the reports.
A spokesperson for HMV said it hopes to keep all 239 of i🍬ts UK stores open, although the company is no longer accepting or issuing gift vouchers.
"We want the bu๊siness to continue as a going concern and fashion a future for ourselves - whether that's through finding a new buyer or other means - and the best way for us to do that is still trade with all our stores open," HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo tol𓆉d
Neil Saunders, managing director of the research house Conlumino, sai﷽d HMV’s fall into administration “was always inevitable” due to structural failures. “In the digital era where 73.4 per cent of music and film are downloaded or bought online, HMV's business model has simply become increasingly irrelevant and unsustainable.
"HMV did not react early enough to the digital trend; it did not give shoppers a reason to keep buying from it. Admittedly, the company has tried to innovate through selling more electricals and gadgets but, unfortunatꦏely, these i💃nitiatives were never going to be enough to counteract the terminal decline in its core business."
Specialist UK games retailer GAME went into administration last March. Administrators from PwC quickly announced the closure of 277 stores, resulting in the loss of over 2,000 jobs. Thankfully the company was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:bought out of administration by OpCapita in early April, saving mor🐻e than half of its pre-administration store portf🧜olio and staff.
