Private Equity News & Analysis

Nomura sees eye to eye with Hands

The Japanese bank has signed an agreement with former employee Guy Hands saying it will invest 10 per cent, up to E300m, of the total commitments of his new fund Terra Firma Capital Partners II.

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The long-awaited and much-expected financing deal between Japan's biggest brokerage Nomura and Guy Hands has at last been signed, sealed and delivered.

The bank has agreed to manage its principal finance investments through its ex-employee’s new company Terra Firma Capital Partners, reports eFinancial News. As part of the deal Nomura will also invest in Terra Firma Capital Partners II, the E3bn private equity fund Hands is frantically fundraising for at present.

It is understood that Nomura will also market the fund in Japan, while placement agents Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch will work on US and European connections.

Hands had approached Nomura management with the proposal to pursue an independent path and set up his own fund early last year. This was alleged to have been prompted by Nomura's reduced appetite for carrying the whole of the Principal Finance Group's investing on its own balance sheet.

The arrangements for Hands' departure and his new fund had been settled in November, and so this latest signed agreement is but a formality on the way to tidying up loose ends.