News & Analysis

Guy Hands relinquishes CEO role

Terra Firma is splitting its chairman and CEO roles, with Terra Firma veteran Tim Pryce taking on the day-to-day running of the business. Hands’ responsibility will cover investors, investments and strategy as the group’s chairman and CIO.

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Guy Hands, the outspoken founder of UK-based buyout house Terra Firma, is to shift his role within the organisation away from the day-to-day business of running the firm to focus on the firm’s investors, its investments and is overall strategy.

Guy Hands

Formerly chairman and chief executive officer, Hands will become group chairman and chief investment officer. Tim Pryce, a founding member of Terra Firma who previously worked with Hands at investment bank Nomura, will assume the role of chief executive.

Hands said that since the firm’s inception in 2002 “staff numbers have increased from approximately 60 to over 110 people, investor relationships have expanded from one UK party to over 200 relationships in 26 countries, and assets under management have grown from €2 billion to €11 billion while 80 percent of our portfolio businesses’ revenues are now from outside the UK”.

The move will allow Hands to concentrate on such investments as the 2007 take-private of music group EMI. Earlier this month Terra Firma revealed it had written off half of its €2.6 billion equity stake in the music business.