HMV to snap up some Zavvi stores

Entertainment retailer HMV has said it is to buy 14 stores from troubled chain Zavvi, funded by selling new shares.

Proceeds will also be used to fund a move into the live music market, taking a joint stake in a firm running 11 venues such as Hammersmith Apollo.

It will also get naming rights to some of the venues.

HMV also said that sales in the five weeks to 3 January - which includes the Christmas period - were up by 2.9%, or by 0.5% not including new stores.

Rebranding

The Zavvi stores it is buying are all profitable, HMV said, primarily in locations where it does not currently have a store.

It expects the cost of the purchase to be about £2m - including fitting out and rebranding the stores. Nine of them are in the UK and five in the Irish Republic.

read full article at The BBC