Guy Hands, the outspoken head of London private equity shop Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., lashed out Wednesday at the U.K. government's controversial flat-rate capital gains tax and its new £30,000 levy on resident foreigners. He said the new taxes may drive some of his staff and his activities offshore.
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Hands, who last year took private the global music business EMI Group plc for £3.2 billion ($6.4 billion) and has major investments in Germany, made the attack in his firm's annual review, as well as a newspaper interview. He warned the new taxes will encourage private equity to be less long term in its approach, reduce the competitiveness of the U.K. as a financial center and "may well drive global firms and highly skilled individuals away from London at significant cost to the U.K. economy in terms of lost revenues and lost taxes." - Jonathan Braude
See story from The Times of London
See related story about EMI from The Deal newsweekly
