The Stage

HMV to take joint-ownership of live music venues

Published Friday 16 January 2009 at 12:15 by Michael Quinn

Music and book retailer HMV Group is to step into the UK's £1 billion live music arena in a venture with the MAMA Group costing almost £20 million.

The move will see 11 music venues around the UK - including the Jazz Cafe in Camden, Edinburgh's the Picture House and the Borderline in London - taken into joint ownership. Several venues, including the 5,100-seat Hammersmith Apollo, will be re-named with the HMV brand during the ten-year deal.

HMV, which also owns the Waterstone's bookstore chain, will invest £18.3 million in the partnership with MAMA, the UK's second-largest operator of live music venues, and plans to raise the money through an equity placement.

The news follows buoyant Christmas trading figures from the retailer, with like-for-like sales in Ireland and the UK up 3% on 2007, and its announcement last week that it was to purchase 14 stores from its failed high street competitor, Zavvi. Currently, the company operates out of 692 stores in seven countries.

HMV chief executive Simon Fox explained the surprise move as a response to "the physical music market changing structurally and [HMV's] need to diversify". Crucially, he added, he hopes the strategy will "deliver a younger demographic to our brand".