Terra Firma resumed making dividend payments to its shareholders last year and hiked up the salaries of its directors, despite the buyout firm having just lost control of its largest investment – music group EMI.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Limited - whose parent company is a Cayman Islands-registered company controlled by Guy Hands - paid a £3.5m ordinary dividend to Hands in April 2011, according to accounts for the year ended March 2011, filed with Companies House.