Buyout firm Terra Firma has pumped £105m sterling of new cash into EMI, sources familiar with the situation said, enough to keep the music group out of the hands of lender Citigroup.
Financier Guy Hands's group had earlier secured approval from investors to stump up the money, and push the struggling group back within the terms of its loan. It had until Monday to transfer the equity to EMI.
Hands's £4 billion acquisition of EMI in 2007 has come to epitomise the perils of leveraged buy-outs at the peak of the credit bubble, with a high debt burden and a volatile performance crippling the business.
Citigroup is still saddled with £3 billion of EMI debt, and could have taken control of the business if Terra Firma had not been able to provide the money.
EMI breached covenants in March and Hands had been hoping to raise £360m to see EMI through any other covenant test until 2015. The £105m he has secured will keep EMI out of Citigroup's hands for another year.
A total of 80% of Terra Firma's investors voted in favour of the fund raising, one of the sources said, more than the minimum 75% required.
