The sale will come as a welcome boost to HMV, which has already issued three profit warnings this year and saw its share price collapse after revealing it was on course to breach its banking covenants at the end of April.

Mamut is currently a 6.7% shareholder in HMV and the sale of Waterstone's will be conditional upon approval of shareholders, the Pensions Regulator and consent from HMV's lending banks.

In a statement to shareholders released by HMV today, the ...