RECORD label EMI – home to artists including Katy Perry, Kylie Minogue and KT Tunstall – could be up for sale again after new owner Universal threatened to jettison parts of the company if the European Commission is too harsh in enforcing competition rules.
Universal – which lists Nicola Benedetti and Lady Gaga among its musicians – is seeking permission from regulators to buy EMI from investment bank Citigroup, which seized control of the label after Guy Hands’s private equity firm Terra Firma could not pay its debts.
A senior Universal executive told a Sunday newspaper: “If the Commission rips the heart out of this deal then we would lose money on it. But we are not going to do a deal that does not make sense. Universal was not the highest bidder for EMI. We were the only ones prepared to take on the regulatory risk.”