Hands proposed break up of EMI
TERRA Firma boss Guy Hands submitted a proposal to Citigroup to break up music giant EMI three months ago, according to court papers filed at the end of last week.
Hands made the proposal in a letter to Chad Leat, head of the alternative asset group at Citi, Terra Firma’s lender for the EMI deal, according to the declaration by a Citigroup loan adviser filed with the US District Court in New York.
In the letter, Hands said Terra Firma wanted to pursue a “consensual restructuring” of EMI’s music publishing and recorded music divisions.
The private equity firm has become embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal dispute with Citi, which advised on and financed Terra Firma’s £4bn acquisition of EMI in 2007.