HMV sees profits climb by almost 10%

HMV has bucked the high-street trend of falling sales with a rise of almost 10 per cent in pre-tax profits for the year.

Consumer interest in its core music, book and DVD formats remained strong, the group said.

HMV, operating in Britain, Ireland the Asia Pacific and Canada and also owns the Waterstone's bookstore chain, said pre-tax profits for the 53 weeks to the end of April were £136.2m.

Sales for the same period came in at almost £1.9bn.

Shares in HMV, which have recently been supported by rumours of a bid from private equity and have outperformed the general retailers' index by 3 per cent this year.