Karaoke-loving Guy Hands hears the music at EMI

LONDON (Reuters) - Guy Hands once regaled employees with a karaoke rendition of "My Way" after losing out on a big deal, but the financier is singing a new song with his $4.7 billion acquistion of British music company EMI Group EMI.L.

Hands made his name at Nomura in the mid-1990s, snapping up struggling companies in some of the biggest leveraged deals of the time before striking out on his own in 2002 with Terra Firma Capital Partners, with the Japanese bank as an investor.

By that measure, EMI, the world's third largest music seller, plays right into his turnaround expertise.

EMI, home to artists including Coldplay and Norah Jones, has hit hard times as CD sales plummet. Underlying profit before tax fell by 61 percent in the year to March 31.

Hands, 46, said he plans to accelerate EMI's shift to digital as the company undergoes a restructuring that has included a management shake-up.

EMI's board recommended Terra Firma's surprise offer of 265 pence a share on Monday after receiving several bids including one from long-time suitor and rival Warner Music (WMG.N).

Considered hardworking and impulsive by peers, Hands is also an unsually straight-talking, candid figure amid the secretive and tight-lipped private equity community.

During an animated speech in Frankfurt earlier this year, he encouraged the industry, facing union criticism, to be more open with the public but he said the high-paid financiers could still embrace capitalism.

"I do believe that greed is good," Hands said.

"But I think for our industry to be sustainable in the long term, and to find a position in the economic order, we have to focus on a lot more besides those who are sitting in this room and those we meet when we're fundraising."

RICH LIST

Hands met his wife, Julia, while she was at Cambridge and he at Oxford, together involved in conservative politics.

Former Conservative Party leader William Hague was best man at their wedding.

The couple ranked 351 on this year's Sunday Times Britain and Ireland rich list, with a worth of 200 million pounds ($394 million).

Hands, an avid photographer, and dyslexic, began his career as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs after selling art door-to-door while at university.

He left the white-shoe firm in 1994 for Nomura, where as head of principal finance in London, he spearheaded 13 billion pounds of deals.

Hands helped to pioneer the use of securitization, or unconventional loan packages guranteed by anticipated cashflow, which enabled him to leverage the cash Nomura supplied.

A seven-year run of success ended with a handful of bad deals, including the ill-fated acquisition in 2001 of the Le Meridien hotel chain, whose business slumped badly following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But Hands became Germany's biggest property owner, Britain's largest pub owner and Europe's largest cinema operator, and he invested in sectors as varied as waste management and aircraft leasing to turn his fortunes around.

The EMI deal, if it succeeds, would signify another type of rebound for Hands -- in the arena of high-profile deals.

He recently lost out to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. KKR.UL in his bid for pharmacy chain owner Alliance Boots AB.L, the largest leveraged buyout in Europe.

(Additional reporting by Mathieu Robbins)