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 “EMI, the music giant controlled by Guy Hands’s Terra Firma, lost a staggering £1.8bn last year leaving it in desperate need of a £120m cash injection to stave off lender Citigroup from taking control of the business,” says the Telegraph.

Wow! That’s a lot a lot of boodle!

At today’s prices, that’s about $3,012,441,629 Canadian.

And 78 cents.

Guess we’d all better dig into our pockets, then, eh?

Two years back, “EMI, a member of the Big 4 organised music cartel, was, spending $400,000 a year on party favors (booze, drugs, women, whatever) for its talent”, p2pnet quoted Silicon Insider as saying.

Now, times are hard for EMI, the broke and busted member of the Big 4 Music Mafia.

The others are Vivendi Universal, Warner Music and Sony Music, and they’re all being sued for price-fixing.

Are things coming unglued at EMI / Terra Firma? – p2pnet wondered in 2007, going on >>>

Now, “Citigroup Inc. rejected a request from Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. to reduce EMI Group Ltd.’s debt by 40 percent in return for a 1 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) cash injection, two people familiar with the talks said,” says Bloomberg News, going on:

“Guy Hands’s private equity firm offered to provide the extra money if Citigroup agreed to reduce the record label’s 2.5 billion-pound debt by a similar amount, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. Citigroup spurned the offer because it would have forced it to write off some of the debt just as EMI’s profit rises, one person said.”

And that’s left EMI “to be run by its own executives, although Hands-appointed non-executives like Lord Birt and former Northern Foods chief executive Pat O’Driscoll remain in place,” says the London Evening Standard, adding:

“Since the takeover, EMI has suffered along with its rivals from the downturn in the music industry and the growth of online piracy.

“It has also been hit by feuding with a string of stars unwilling to be managed by ’suits’, with Joss Stone the latest to hit out at her own recording label.”

So, things have finally come unglued at EMI / Terra Firma.

Adds the Telegraph:

“Mr Hands will now have to persuade investors in Terra Firma to sign over another £120m which would give the group sufficient equity headroom to last until March 2011 or face losing their £2.2bn investment altogether.”

Expect to soon see a puff piece from EMI saying this is a temporary setback and really, things are just peachy.

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