Fri Apr 5, 2013 4:38am EDT
By Neil Maidment
April 4 (Reuters) - Restructuring specialist Hilco could seal a 50 million pound ($76 million) deal to rescue Britain's most high profile entertainment retailer HMV as early as this Friday, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters.
Hilco is expected to acquire around 130 HMV stores and all nine cut-price Fopp branded outlets in a deal that could save 2,500 jobs. It has long been the favourite to take HMV out of administration after the firm bought up its debt in January.
HMV, whose first store on London's Oxford Street was opened by English composer Edward Elgar in 1921, appointed administrator Deloitte to find a buyer for the business in January, after struggling with declining CD, DVD and video game markets as well as fierce supermarket and online competition.
Sky News reported that the chain was expected to be run by incumbent HMV executives together with newly-appointed Hilco executives, adding that major music companies and film studios, as well as HMV's landlords had backed the deal.
Hilco and Deloitte declined to comment.
Deloitte has so far said that around 100 of HMV's 230 stores would close, putting more than 1,700 of the group's 4,000-strong workforce at risk.
Hilco, which has turned around the HMV Canada business it bought in 2011, has been involved in many high profile UK retail restructurings, including Habitat, Woolworths and Borders.
Last year it was also brought in to clear stock and close stores at Clinton Cards and JJB Sports.
A rescue for HMV, whose Nipper the Dog trademark is a familiar logo on the British high street, would be a timely boost for retailers as pressure on consumer spending and a shifting trend to shopping online hit businesses hard.
Along with Woolworths and JJB Sports, well-known firms like MFI and Comet have also fallen by the wayside in recent years.
In its new guise HMV, which had sales of 923 million in its last full-year results for the year to April 28, 2012 but posted a pretax loss of 16.2 million pounds, is expected to focus on a more competitive digital offering.
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