Tuesday, March 01, 2011

HMV warn leaky boat might leak a bit more

Given that we've only completed two months of 2011 so far, it might seem surprising that MHV are already on their second profits warning already.

HMV told the city that its profits were going to be "moderately" below expectations - which seems right up there with "this might sting a little" and "I've some rather bad news". Stockholders seem to have seen this through Sergeant Wilson approach, and dumped HMV shares faster than you could put Olly Murs albums into a bargain bin.

The Guardian offer this handy graph of HMV share prices:


The company is still expecting to make £45million in profits this year, but set against that is £130m worth of debt. Shares value the company at around £66m at the moment, which the astute amongst you will spot is about half of the value of the debt it carries.

Nipper, the HMV dog, is looking up at Mr Herriot with meaningful, but tired, eyes.

[Thanks to Michael M]


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You might not take such delight if you, or one of your loved ones worked for HMV. I find your delight in celebrating their demise rather sad.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

It's terrible for anyone to lose their job, especially the way things are now. But that doesn't excuse the fact that HMV have managed to run themselves into the ground - managing to throw away the advantage of being the only chain selling music so wholeheartedly is an act of staggering incompetence.

Perhaps you felt for the owners and workers in record shops who lost their jobs and livelihoods as Virgin and HMV undercut prices and hoovered up floating shoppers during the last twenty years. I suspect not.

Anonymous said...

Branson had it right when he legged it out of the UK with his Megastores a few years ago.

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