Private equity's woes are beginning to translate into European job losses. The Financial Times reports that 3i Group plc is about to ax some 15% of its staff -- or about 100 people -- mainly in marketing, human resources and back-office functions, and about half will be in the U.K. 3i spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
But at other places the defenestration is happening at an altogether
higher level. Highest of the lot are the reported axings of Terra Firma
Capital Partners' appointees to EMI Group, Chris Roling and Ashley
Unwin.
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Roling and Unwin joined the London megafund in 2007 as managing directors (for portfolio businesses and talent, respectively) and were parachuted in to run CEO and founder Guy Hands' acquisition. Hands bought the music business in mid-2007 in a £6.2 billion ($7.8 billion) transaction and put in Roling as COO and CFO and Unwin as COO for the U.K. and North America.
U.K. media say the deal was made with £2.6 billion of loans from Citigroup Inc., and Terra Firma recently had to inject an undisclosed additional sum to meet the terms of its debt covenants. Unsurprisingly, Hands is also reportedly reviewing the employment of other Terra Firma people involved in EMI, particularly key figures in the due diligence process. His own job is probably safe for the moment, however. - Jonathan Braude
