Hope for HMV's Henry Street store
One of HMV's Irish outlets could be thrown a lifeline under a new deal being proposed in the UK.
Hilco, the specialist restructuring firm, is poised to sign a £50m (€59m) deal that could save up to 2,500 jobs.
Around 300 HMV workers in Ireland lost their jobs after the music retail chain closed its 16 stores here back in January.
A month later it was announced that a total of 66 of its 220 outlets were closing their doors with the loss of almost 1,000 jobs.
It is now being reported that Hilco will acquire 130 HMV branded shops and all nine of the outlets which operate under the cut-price music brand Fopp in a deal worth an estimated £50m (€59m).
Major music companies and film studios, keen to keep a major distribution channel on the high streets, are understood to have agreed to new supply terms with HMV and have approved the deal, the report said.
The group called in administrators from Deloitte in January but hopes of a rescue deal were subsequently raised after Hilco bought the company’s debt.
There has been some speculation the company's Henry Street store in Dublin could be saved as part of the process.
The deal could be announced as early as this morning.
