Private Equity Sour Grapes Of The Week

From CityAM:

FINANCIER Guy Hands is preparing to ask his private equity backers to plough another £100m into the troubled record company EMI.

The company, whose artists include Coldplay and Robbie Williams, is close to breaching the covenants on its £2.6bn debt with Citigroup and has until May to find fresh capital. Hands has asked EMI to put together a turnaround plan that will persuade investors in his Terra Firma private equity company to stump up the additional cash.

Terra Firma, led by Hands, bought EMI in 2007 for £2.4bn, but has since written down its investment. It has been wrangling with Citigroup for some time over EMI's debt burden, and is now suing the bank, which brokered the original deal, claiming it over-inflated the price of the record company.

I would add "I hope they both lose!", but the longer such a case drags on, the more money the lawyers get. Hmmm.