Guy Hands Steps Down as Terra Firma Chief Executive

Guy Hands will step down as chief executive officer of Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., two weeks after the leveraged buyout firm reported a 1.39 billion- euro ($1.8 billion) loss for 2008.

Hands, 49, will remain chairman and chief investment officer, the London-based firm said in a statement today. Tim Pryce, 43, the firm’s lawyer, will replace Hands as CEO. Terra Firma raised 5.4 billion euros for its latest fund in 2007, and invested about 30 percent of it in EMI, the record label of Coldplay and Katy Perry.

Hands has changed EMI’s managers and is cutting costs to revive profit. EMI’s net loss in the six months ended Sept. 30 shrank by 52 percent to 155 million pounds, the company said in January. Sales rose by 10 percent to 737 million pounds.

Read the full article here at the Bloomberg website.