It’s been heaps of fun writing about greedy Guy Hands of private equity firm Terra Firma dragging EMI down with his disastrous purchase of it for $6 billion in 2007 and subsequent attempts to pay off the massive debts the company owes to bankers Citigroup. After losing a court case recently in which Hands had argued he was tricked by Citigroup in to paying too much, it appeared to be only a matter of months before Terra Firma defaulted on its loans and the company was repossessed and sold off.
However, in surprising new developments, it seems Hands is more slippery than first thought. The UK tax exile, who lives on the Channel island of Guernsey and can’t enter the UK to avoid being slapped with a massive tax bill, was revealed to have paid himself a dividend of almost $A19 million last year for his less than sterling work on behalf of investors who will bear the brunt of massive losses.
In a further twist, he’s launched an appeal against the US court decision, which could carry on in the maze-like US court system for years. However, the most likely outcome, according to whispers around the City of London financial district, is that he’ll default on the company’s debts in March and the recorded music section will be sold off to Warner Music and the music publishing division to US investment firm KKR which owns the BMG label.
