HMV To Enter Administration Tomorrow, Official Statement Issued

HMV have been in trouble for a little while and warned last month that it was likely to breach banking covenants, but tonight it seems like the high street retailer is on the cusp of administration, with tomorrow morning penned in as the rather unfortunate end of the line.

Multiple sources are claiming that Deloitte have been appointed as administrators, with a statement due first thing in the morning.

HMV last Friday announced a ‘blue cross’ sale with some reasonable discounts to be found. This hasn’t made much impact, though – shares instantly dropped by a fifth despite claims that the promotion was nothing to do with ongoing negotiations.

4,350 jobs are at risk, according to The Telegraph, who says HMV have nearly 240 stores across the UK and have been going for over ninety years.

Our thoughts go out to those affected.

Update: it’s true. HMV have issued the following statement:

On 13 December 2012, the Company announced that as a result of current market trading conditions, the Company faced material uncertainties and that it was probable that the Group would not comply with its banking covenants at the end of January 2013. The Company also stated that it was in discussions with its banks.

Since that date, the Company has continued the discussions with its banks and other key stakeholders to remedy the imminent covenant breach. However, the Board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the Company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect.

The Directors of the Company understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business.

It is proposed that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding, partners of Deloitte LLP, will be appointed as the administrators of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries.

The Company’s ordinary shares will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

51 Comments

  1. 4,350 jobs, and none to replace them. The future looks bleak; I’m not even out of school yet and as such I’ve been rejected for many applications on the basis of experience and working hours, although I assume this is the same for everyone. I’ve heard rumors some GAME stores may shut too… :/

    • don’t worry young one, McDonald’s will always be round as you can’t get it online cheaper.

    • Unfortunally, it gets harder when you leave school and try to get a job. I’ve been unemployed for over a year and have been rejected more times then i would like to care. I really hope the current staff at HMV were informed today and not had to find out about this via sites.

      @fatty, Mcdonalds are overpriced imo and seem to be a bit naff. I prefer to get a cheap mircowaveable burger and chips as they taste better. And cheaper. :D

      • Rustlers FTW

      • Nothings beats a good rustlers’s burger with BBQ sauce. Okay, maybe a bacon burger with BBQ sauce. Or a quaterpounder. Unlike Mcdonald’s burgers which are bloody small and disappointing to eat. £4 for a small burger and chips, what an insult. Crud, i’ve gone off topic. :O

      • Yup. Left school in 2010 and still unemployed. All i ever get is “not enough experience” because i’ve never had a job.

        How the bleeding heck to i GET experience if no one will give me a bloody job?

      • wait wat. yo dissin Mcdonalds???

      • ..then your ordering the burger then, they can be big too. Stop getting the Happy meals *rolls eyes*

      • *wrong burger* oh narf…. -__-

      • If you didn’t go to university I’d highly recommend looking into an apprenticeship. The rate of pay is pants, but you get the training and experience that employers are looking for. It’s a great step into work if you can’t find anything.

      • @carl, have you thought about Volunterring as that will get you experience. An apprenticeship can be worthwhile as you could end up with a job afterwards. That said, it’s hard as feck to get onto an apprenticeship.

        @Symp, i don’t order their happy meals, i order their normal meals and the burgers are bloody small!

    • Look at being an apprentice with people, work for nothing or enough to get to work and back while you live with your parents. That will give you valuable work experience and possibility of a job at the end of your term.

  2. this is pretty gutting for me, HMV rescued Fopp which is one of my fave stores in the city I live, not too fussed about HMV, they are just really a goto destination if you want any films or albums, but i never found them competitive price wise if you could be bothered to look elsewhere. I feel sorry for all those people about to lose their jobs.

    • 5 blu rays for £30 is a good offer ATM, but I agree there pricing isnt on par with online, I was in hmv a few weeks ago (rare occasion for me) and some of the prices I just couldn’t understand.Whist browsing the blu rays there was a couple next to me and the fella picked up a few films and she just said “Nah leave them there cheaper on amazon” And they left without a purchase… which is the trend now.

  3. does this mean my hmv vouchers will be worthless ?

    • yup.

    • Yes so you may want to spend them tomorrow.

      • but if they go into administration tomorrow won’t they be worthless?

      • Possibly. The administrators can just refuse to use them.

        Can you nip down now before it shuts?

      • that’s a very good point what time does hmv picadily close?

      • Too late! I Just got back from HMV picadilly. I thought I could get rid of my vouchers but unfortunatly I was told that they are worthless untill further notice and they are not taking any games for trade in as well.
        The Stuff looked like they were close to tears.
        Terrible.

      • *staff*

      • £150 down the drain :(

      • Nick, don’t bin them. GAME did the same and refused vouchers and such, then when things “got sorted” they accepted again. So do not bin!!!

      • Same thing happened with me when Zavvi went bust, but the administrators did refund them eventually, I just had to send them off and wait.

    • I managed to use my HMV voucher last week after the reading the news on TheSixthAxis a week or so ago – thanks TSA.

  4. I thought we did well to get 4 DVDs for £12. Now I know why. It’ll be even cheaper tomorrow I guess.

    Hope they manage to keep it alive.

  5. Seems like the retail chains of yore are going away, if I said it was going to happen a few years ago people would have called me nuts. Damn shame so many people are going to be losing jobs, but that’s the nature of things at the moment. Hopefully they can recover and get jobs soon.

  6. On 13 December 2012, the Company announced that as a result of current market trading conditions, the Company faced material uncertainties and that it was probable that the Group would not comply with its banking covenants at the end of January 2013. The Company also stated that it was in discussions with its banks.

    Since that date, the Company has continued the discussions with its banks and other key stakeholders to remedy the imminent covenant breach. However, the Board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the Company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect.

    The Directors of the Company understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business.

    It is proposed that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding, partners of Deloitte LLP, will be appointed as the administrators of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries.

    The Company’s ordinary shares will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

  7. Best of wishes for those affected.

  8. damn shame, but if im honest i have been downloading all my games for ages now. Any I do buy hard copy I get from Asda as prices are better and I never buy pre-owned.
    Supermarkets and digital download is killing retail. It isnt that HMV is too expensive, it is that supermarkets and online are much cheaper.
    As consumers we can support Game / HMV with our wallets to keep the shops that have served us our games for many years. But most, myself included, will opt for cheapest and convenient methods.

    • Supermarkets are retail it’s still bricks and mortar and downloads are far from any traction with regards to console downloads (PC on the other hand..).

      No it’s Online shops what are killing High street (online again is still retail :D) Retail = Hard copy.

      Either way less choice to buy games = Bad

      • Yeah, should have put “specialist retail” :-)

  9. Glad to see the work the ComDems is doing to sort out our economy is working… not.
    Comet, Jessops, HMV, next?

    • I don’t understand why people are so quick to blame the government for everything that happens within the economy.

      HMV failed to adapt their business plan due to the competition online and as such lost too much custom due to a more educated customer base.

      As much as I hate to see it happen – business concepts like HMV are dying on the high street and I don’t see the government being any help in this situation. They can’t force customers through the door unfortunately.

      • Yep, lord knows I’ll be the first to bash our current government if there’s the faintest whiff of blame but this is a good old case of “fail to evolve and die out” unfortunately. It can happen to any business, regardless of financial climate.

        Although, if you give me a minute, I can work out how it’s Thatcher’s fault. I’m a child of the ’80s, everything is Thatcher’s fault somehow.

  10. Fuck.

    Looks like the only entertainment shop left in Cork will be the rip-off that is GameStop after HMV and GAME shut.

    Oh, and Golden Discs. No idea how they stay open with prices sometimes double what HMV are charging.

    I don’t want to switch to online shopping (no browsing experience, and then I have to wait for the thing to be delivered) but looks like I’ll have no choice. :(

    • Yep no reason to go down Patrick Street anymore now.Gamestop already added a fiver to all new games since the closure of Game here . Don’t think Golden Discs have sold games in a long while other than the odd bargain bin jobs.Xtravision pretty much on the way out too looks like gamers in the Rebel County are screwed!Can’t think of too many places to get new release bluray movies either besides HMV!??

      • Xtra-Vision will be the only place to buy new release blu-rays but their selection is limited, much more focused on rentals.

        Tesco will do the odd big release as well, but it’s certainly not common from them.

        And it’ll be between Xtra-Vision and GameStop to see who can charge more for their games with HMV out of the way. Oh, and Smyths. But I can’t recall the last time they managed to beat any of the others on pricing- they’re more focused on getting sales from a parent of a gamer than gamers themselves.

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