"Significant levels of interest" have been expressed in securing all - or parts of HMV - the beleaguered High Street music retailer.
A spokeswoman for administrator, Deloitte, confirmed that it had received a number of positive enquires about the iconic chain, which can trace its music pedigree back to 1921.The 223-store chain called in administrators yesterday, putting over 4,100 jobs in jeopardy.
Nick Edwards, joint administrator and restructuring services partner at Deloitte, said: 'HMV is an iconic retailer and continues to be a very popular brand, but as we have seen with many high street retailers, the market is changing rapidly and conditions are currently very tough.
'Following our appointment, we are working closely with management and staff to stabilise the business in order to continue trading whilst actively seeking a purchaser for the business and assets. We appreciate the cooperation and support from the staff, customers, suppliers and landlords at what is clearly a difficult time.'
In its most recent interim financial results for the 26 weeks ended 27 October 2012, HMW Group plc reported a 13.5% drop in total sales from continuing operations to £288.6m (2011: £333.7m).
Like for like sales (from continuing operations) were also down 10.2% (2011: down 11.9%). At the time, HMV stated that 'current market trading conditions result in material uncertainties facing the business [with a] probable covenant breach at the end of January 2013'.
Last night, the HMV board said 'it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect. It is the intention of the administrators to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business'.
Total Group loss after tax and exceptional items reduced to £36.1m (2011: loss of £50.1m) over the same period.
Just five months ago, HMV appointed Trevor Moore as CEO, and Ian Kenyon, former Carphone Warehouse finance chief, as CFO, in a bid to keep the group afloat.
The demise of the chain was exacerbated when suppliers, including music labels, film companies and DVD suppliers, refused to extend £300m worth of financing to help HMV pay its bank debts.