Former EMI owner puts more money into up-market chain Hand Picked Hotels
Private equity magnate Guy Hands propped-up the loss-making hotel chain run by his wife by shelling out a further £4.6m so that it can keep its head above water.
The Terra Firma founder put his hand into his pocket to help Hand Picked Hotels. The move replicated that of previous years and was executed through the company issuing preference shares in return for the cash.
Read more: Hands is now chairman, CIO and interim CEO of Terra Firma
The company operates 17 high-end country hotels across the UK and Channel Islands.
It generated £62m of revenues and operating profit of £2.8m. But this was wiped out by paying just its interest of £7.2m on its chunky £110m of bank debt.
Read more: Terra Firma's Guy Hands drops EMI lawsuit against Citigroup
There was positive news for the cash flow in February 2016 with the sale of Priest House Hotel in Castle Donnington, Derbyshire, which yielded £3.1m.
Hands has had a challenging 2016 after a trial collapsed just days into proceedings.
Terra Firma brought the case against Citigroup in relation to its investment into music giant EMI in 2007 and subsequently having to surrender the business to the bank in return for Citi wiping out its reported £2.2bn of debt.