Tim Waterstone, the founder of the bookstore chain which bears his name, has made a fresh £220m approach to buy it back from current owner HMV, it was reported today.
The move, which has been rebuffed by the music retailer, is the latest attempt by Waterstone to take back the chain he started 20 years ago.
According to press reports today, he made a direct appeal to the non-executive directors of HMV, which floated last year.
But the board rebuffed the approach and any suggestion of a disposal as it regards the book shop as a key part of the business.
A spokesman for HMV said: “HMV came to the market with a very clear strategy – the expansion of the business, in the UK and in Europe, and the recovery of Waterstone’s using the HMV blueprint.”
The move is a change of tactics from earlier bids. Most recently he made a bid to executive managers via HMV’s adviser UBS Warburg, which was also declined.
Waterstone has told people in the industry that he is determined to win back his old company and predicts that HMV will eventually cave in.
He believes Waterstone’s should stock a wider range, with less emphasis on best sellers. But the literary offering does not seem to worry shoppers whose patronage has helped the chain grow market share by 2% to 27% in the past four years, according to data from industry standard BookTrack.
“I think their rejection [of the approach] is a pity because I believe that Waterstone’s will never recover its strength and market share until it is returned to the literacy traditions from whence it sprang,” Waterstone was today reported as saying.
He points to Office for National Statistics figures which show that, over the past five years, Waterstone’s market share has fallen from 18.5% to 14.9%.
Waterstone’s enjoyed strong trading over the crucial Christmas period, taking sales of fiction titles away from rivals such as WHSmith.
Underlying sales rose 5%-6% in the five week festive season.
