Waterstone mulls bid for bookshops that bear his name

Shares in parent company HMV rise as speculation mounts about intentions of entrepreneur turned novelist Tim Waterstone

The entrepreneur turned novelist Tim Waterstone was today considering making a sixth bid in 12 years for the eponymous bookshop he founded in 1982.

Shares in Waterstone's owner, the struggling entertainment group HMV, shot up by 9% today as speculation mounted that it would put the bookseller up for sale and that its founder was plotting a bid with Alexander Mamut, a Russian billionaire with a 6.1% stake in HMV.

"I just can't comment at this stage. Sorry to be obtuse," Waterstone said when asked if he was considering a bid with Mamut, who owns Evroset, a Russian mobile phone retailer.

Waterstone, who last month said he was still interested in the bookshop, previously invested with Mamut in Bookberry, a now bankrupt Russian bookstore chain.

HMV declined to comment, but sources said the group, whose high street music business has been hit by online rivals, could be interested in a deal. Waterstone's contributed a 9.9m operating loss to HMV Group's bottom line in the six months to the end of October, as sales dipped by 3.2% to 219.5m.

The publishing industry and book lovers have followed the story of Waterstone's with interest, and the founder's reappearance would add an intriguing twist to the plot.

Waterstone modernised bookselling when he set up the business with a 6,000 redundancy payoff from WHSmith, creating a chain that felt like an independent. Five years after selling it to his former employers in 1993, pocketing 9m, Waterstone bought it back and became group chairman in a deal backed by HMV. He left the business in 2001 over concerns about how it was run in particular, he felt it was chasing the mass market too hard. He has since bid for the group on four occasions, most recently in 2006.

It retains affection in the industry. Mark Le Fanu, the general secretary of the Society of Authors, said: "Waterstone's is the onl! y substa ntial high street retailer left in the country and its continued existence is extremely important to writers.

"Amazon is terrifically good at supplying books efficiently but new writers and writers with reputations being built rely very much on the high street, which can guide towards certain authors and advise customers on lesser known books."

Waterstone's is the last significant dedicated high street bookseller after it snapped up Dillons and Ottakar's and Borders collapsed. Last month, British Bookshops and Stationers, a Sussex-based chain, went into administration.

Neill Denny, the editor-in-chief of the Bookseller, said the high street bookshop was being squeezed by supermarkets and internet sellers, but added: "It is inconceivable to think of the British book market without Waterstone's. There will always be a place for it on the high street." He said it bridged the gap between mass market retailers and specialist boutiques such as Foyles and Daunt Books.

Denny is upbeat about British book retailing. Music sales have halved in the past decade, but book revenues have climbed by about a half in the same period, he said. Last year, book sales dipped by just 1-2% "not bad" during a recession.

The book industry is expected to benefit in the coming months from new novels by David Lodge, Ali Smith, Beryl Bainbridge, Graham Swift and Aravind Adiga.


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