Guy Hands Steps Sideways Rather Than Down At Terra Firma

Tubby and boyish private equity maven Guy Hands has announced he is stepping down as chairman and chief exec of his firm Terra Firma. But he’s not leaving, just concentrating on investments and investor relationships – all basically smoke and mirrors to convince investors not to jump ship amid the recession.

Terra Firma has had a funny time of it recently – we saw how they had to absorb troubled investors and meet those funding requirements themselves, and also how they had to pay a massive impairment charge after EMI dragged their business down, along with Guy renouncing his bonus and getting on his soapbox about how the government should tackle the crisis.

While Guy rushes around trying to convince investors to stay on Terra Firma, he’s got the firm’s general counsel Tim Pryce to step up as chief exec. Pryce is diplomatically described by the FT as “ego-free” with a “low-key personality”; Hands has got some drone to do the boring stuff while he gets to amp up the charisma and secure more investment. Guy’s still running the show – as one person told the FT: “This is a smart gesture. It is highly visible, yet relatively meaningless”.

Hands’ most recent investment is in Australian cattle ranch Consolidated Pastoral, which sounds like the farming company of a dystopian future, or the title of a McSweeney’s novel. He bought out 90% of the company last week, which has 300,000 cattle across 12 million acres of Oz. Suddenly the image of Hands trekking Hugh Jackman-like across the land is indelibly cut into my mind…

Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Hot Money | March 18, 2009 11:16AM |