Last week we reported on the woes continuing to beset EMI records and the very real possibility that venture capitalists Terra Firma will have their record company repossessed by their bankers, Citibank. EMI is now suing Citibank saying that Citibank told them porky pies.
In a case filed in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, Terra Firma alleges that Citigroup lied in saying that there was a rival bidder for EMI. Terra Firma argues that information caused it to offer a higher bid for the behemoth, acquiring it in 2007.
As a result of the suit, it has now been revealed that some of the biggest investors in Terra Firma’s investment funds were large US public employee pension funds. The funds were comprised of money belonging to more than 100 U.S.-based funds, which account for 24% of the investments in EMI, including New York Life Insurance, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Assn., Montana Board of Investments, Cornell University, the University of California and public pension funds from Colorado, Oregon, Indiana, North Carolina and New York. These funds will certainly want EMI to win the case against Citibank lest they lose the investments of millions of teachers and public servants.
