AMG Placed Into Receivership, 56 Jobs Lost

Debt-ridden Australian Music Group Holdings (AMG), which trades as Allans Billy Hyde, was placed in receivership on August 23 by Revere Capital, a group of private investors owed roughly $27 million by AMG, who appointed James Stewart and Brendan Richards from Ferrier Hodgson as administrators.

On Wednesday of this week (9/12) Ferrier Hodgson said the immediate loss of 56 jobs resulting from the restructure would occur predominantly at the AMG head office at Rowville in Melbourne.

The restructure was designed to prepare AMG for eventual closure but the receivers remained in talks with interested parties in case a last-minute sale could be achieved.

“Without a sale, the controlled closure process will see the AMG business (incorporating Allans Billy Hyde, Musiclink and Intermusic) wound up over the next few weeks, with about $45 million in stock being cleared at discount prices by the receivers,” Ferrier Hodgson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Prior to the restructure, there were 608 employees at AMG, including 141 at its head office.

Unsecured creditors are owed around $13.5 million, while employee entitlements are estimated at $3 million.

AMG has nine company-owned stores in New South Wales, eight in Victoria, five in Queensland, two in South Australia and one in Western Australia. There are also two franchise stores in New South Wales, and one each in Victoria and the Northern Territory.

Allans and Billy Hyde merged in July of 2010. Allans dates back to a music warehouse on Melbourne’s Collin’s street opened in the 1850s, while Billy Hyde was a drum maker who opened his first store in Flemington in 1962.