British music and books retailer HMV has said it is confident that its underlying full-year pre-tax profits will be near the upper end of market expectations.
It said market expectations for the year to April 26 were in the range of £46-58m. HMV owns bookseller Waterstone's as well as music shops under its own name.
In a trading update, HMV said like-for-like sales grew by 10% in the 16 weeks to April 26, and by 7.3% over the full year. In the UK and Ireland, sales grew 13.8% in the last 16 weeks of the year to April 26 and by 11.4% for the year as a whole.
Like-for-like sales at Waterstone's climbed 6.6% in the last 16 weeks and 3.3% for the year. Like-for-like sales strip out the impact of new stores.
