HMV in the red at £80m

Ailing music retailer HMV has crashed to an £80m after-tax loss as departing chief executive Simon Fox ran up big charges in his final results.

The group took a £38.7m writedown on its former joint venture with e-book retailer aNobii, and there were £16m in costs from restructuring and store closures. HMV said last week that Mr Fox would quit next month to be replaced by Trevor Moore.

Even without exceptional items, the company made a pre-tax loss of £16.2m. Revenues dived 12 per cent on a like-for-like basis to £873m as falling sales of recorded music failed to offset growth in live music.