Guy Hands

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Guy Hands (born 27 August 1959)^[1] is a British financier and investor. He is the founder (2002) and chairman of the private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners.

Early life

He was born 27 August 1959 in Kent, to Christopher and Sally Hands^[1], and educated at Ravenscroft School, Beckington, and the The Judd School, Tonbridge.^[2] In a Ravenscroft production of Macbeth in 1970, he played the part of Lady Macbeth opposite Christopher Newbury as Macbeth.^[2]

He was an undergraduate at Mansfield College, Oxford, and held the office of Bursar of the Oxford Union Society.^[2]

While at university, he became friends with William Hague, who was later best man at his wedding, in 1984, to Julia Caroline Ablethorpe^[1]. They have two sons and two daughters.^[1]

His house in Kent was once presented to Winston Churchill.

Career

Hands started his career as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs in the early 1980s. He left for Nomura in 1994 and made a fortune as Managing Director of its Principal Finance Group, with the purchase of a chain of UK pubs.^[2]

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 $2.7 billion private equity fund, immediately making it one of the larger private equity firms in Europe.^[3]

Terra Firma has acquired a property portfolio in the UK and Germany (where they are the country's biggest landlord), ex UK Ministry of Defence residential housing and motorway service stations. It is also the largest owner of cinemas in Europe, having taken control of the United Cinemas International and Odeon Cinemas chains. Other acquisitions include the waste water company Waste Recycling Group and music company EMI.

In mid-November 2009, Terra Firma announced it would be writing down its investment in EMI by 90% (approximately €1.5 billion) after the record label’s creditors Citigroup turned down a deal to restructure its debt. Hands had recently acknowledged that the EMI deal had been a mistake when he said, “If we hadn’t done that, we’d have 90% of our funds still to invest and we’d look like complete geniuses. Instead, having written off well over a billion, we look like chumps.”

Hands and his wife Julia also own the Hand Picked Hotels chain of 17 country-house properties, which is run by Julia Hands.

Guy and Julia Hands were estimated to be worth £250 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2008. Previously in the Sunday Times Rich List 2005 they had been estimated to be worth £175 million, placing them at position 281 in the list of the richest people in the United Kingdom.

Honours and appointments

• 2000 - elected a Global Leader of Tomorrow of the World Economic Forum
• President of Access for Excellence
• Bancroft Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford
• Member of the University of Oxford Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors
• Fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme
• Chairman of EMI

Philanthropy

He contributed towards the funding of the Guy Hands Library, a Judd School facility, and the Hands Building at Mansfield College Oxford.

External links

• Terra Firma Capital Partners (company website)
• Terra Firma Capital Partners (Guy Hands Profile)
• Hand Picked Hotels (company website)
• Guardian profile

References

v • d • e Private equity and venture capital investors Investment Strategy Buyout · Venture · Growth · Mezzanine · Secondaries History History of private equity and venture capital · Early history of private equity · Private equity in the 1980s · Private equity in the 1990s · Private equity in the 2000s Investor types Private equity investors · Venture capitalists · Corporate raiders