Terra Firma Capital Partners

Terra Firma Capital Partners was spun out of Nomura Holdings Inc. in 2002. Investors gave Terra Firma little chance of surviving after it had lost about 30 percent of a 5.4 billion- euro ($7.2 billion) fund it raised in 2007 on a failed, 4 billion-pound ($6.3 billion) buyout of U.K. music giant EMI Group Ltd. The loss pushed the fund’s return to a negative 19 percent annually as of Sept. 30 2012, according to the Oregon state pension fund. The fund was valued at just half of its investment cost. The 2007 fund’s investment period lapsed in May of last year, Terra Firma having shelved efforts to raise a follow-on fund, a person close to the firm said. Early last year, Guy Hands dipped into his own pocket to pay his best deal makers 20 million pounds to keep them from decamping, the person said. Hands, whose firm is based in London, continued to make deals, announcing in November 2012 a 3.2 billion-pound takeover of Annington Homes Ltd., a provider of housing to the British military, from his former employer, Nomura. Hands, who had built the housing portfolio for Nomura, rustled up 500 million pounds of equity for Annington, according to a person familiar with the transaction. Terra Firma plans to raise a 3 billion-euro fund to invest in renewable energy projects, according to the Financial Times.