Guy Hands (born 27 August 1959) is an English financier and investor. He is most notable as the founder and chairman of Terra Firma Capital Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in Europe. Hands also served as chairman of the UK music company EMI.
Hands is well known for his frequently outspoken comments about the private equity industry. In April 2009 he moved from the UK to Guernsey where Terra Firma is based.
Biography
Hands was born in London, to South African parents, who had lived in Southern Rhodesia. As a small boy he attended Holy Trinity School, Cookham, where he was diagnosed as severely dyslexic. At the age of nine, he was sent to Ravenscroft, a prep school which had a specialist class for dyslexics, and in a Ravenscroft production of Macbeth in 1970 he played the part of Lady Macbeth opposite Christopher Newbury as Macbeth. From there, he went on to The Judd School, at Tonbridge, where there is now a Guy Hands Library.
Hands studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mansfield College, Oxford. While there, he held the office of Bursar of the Oxford Union and was also President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in Michaelmas Term 1980. Hands later provided funding for construction of the Hands Building at Mansfield College.
Early career
Before arriving at Oxford, Hands started a business selling pictures. Once he was there, it became known as 'Artsake' and employed a number of his fellow students.
Hands started his City career in 1982 as a eurobond trader at Goldman Sachs. He was appointed Head of Eurobond trading in 1986 and later rose to become head of global asset structuring world-wide for Goldman's European division in 1990. In 1994, Hands left Goldman to found Nomura's Principal Finance Group, which focused on European private equity investments. Hands joined Nomura after three other banks, including Goldman, turned down his investment plan. At Nomura, Hands and his team completed over $20 billion of leveraged buyouts. By 2000, Hands was reported to have generated profits for the bank in excess of $1.9 billion, making him a star financier in London. Hands' most notable acquisitions at Nomura included Annington Homes, as well as William Hill, the bookmaker, and Angel Trains, the UK rolling stock company. As well, Hands effectively became the UK's biggest pub landlord through a series of acquisitions in the 1990s. In 1996, Hands played a central role in the sale of the Ministry of Defence's 57,400 homes for military personnel and their families to Annington Homes, which had been established earlier that year as a shell company by Nomura, making Annington the largest owner of residential property in England and Wales.
Terra Firma
In 2002, Hands founded Terra Firma Capital Partners, as a spinout from Nomura, which he had built into one of the largest private equity investors in Europe. Terra Firma debuted with a €2 billion private equity fund, immediately making it one of the larger private equity investors in Europe.
The firm's early investments, while still a division of Nomura, focused on housing (Annington Homes), leasing companies and pubs. Since 2002, the firm has made major investments in the waste management (Waste Recycling Group), energy (BGCL, East Surrey Holdings, Phoenix Natural Gas), aircraft leasing (AWAS), cinema (Odeon Cinemas/UCI) and music sectors (EMI). TFCP has also made significant investments in German residential housing (Deutsche Annington) and motorway services (Tank & Rast).
Terra Firma is now also one of the world's leading private equity investors in renewable energy. Its investments include the UK-based green energy business (Infinis), a US wind energy business (EverPower) and an Italian solar energy business (RTR).