Citigroup has seized control of EMI Group from beleaguered financier Guy Hands, acquiring 100% of the share capital in a restructuring that saw the company's debt load cut to £1.2bn from £3.4bn.

The transaction ends a long-running saga triggered by Hands' £4bn buyout of the UK music group in 2007 through his private equity firm Terra Firma. The highly leveraged acquisition, at the height of the boom, was financed with debt from Citigroup.