EMI smile could be saying it all

SCEPTICS who reckon EMI and Warner Music will never make it up the aisle could be in for a surprise.

The cheery demeanour of EMI boss Eric Nicoli on Monday suggests he is hopeful of crowning his career with the £900m deal, even though he is keeping tight-lipped on the prospects.

'I won't say anything,' he said, following the annual meeting of music group HMV, where he is chairman. 'It is still early days,' he added. 'Only one week has passed since we announced we were in talks.'

Nicoli was in jovial form as he conducted the HMV meeting. 'You can tell from the way Jane holds the microphone that she is good at karaoke,' he quipped, after a speech from HMV's auditor Jane Green, of Ernst & Young.

He showed no sign of the strains which one would expect if talks were not going to plan. Since regulators scuppered a deal between EMI and Warner in 2000, EMI's shares have slumped from 600p to 146p. Nicoli knows he must grab the opportunity with both hands this time around.

Perhaps he was just happy about HMV's performance and the fact that there were no tough questions from shareholders.

Total sales at HMV - which also owns Waterstone's bookstores - were up 1.8% in the first 21 weeks of the financial year. Its music stores in the UK and Ireland were up 6.5% thanks to new openings, and up 0.6% on an underlying basis.