Ex-Sainsbury's chief Justin King new Terra Firma vice-chair

Mikkel Stern-Peltz and Greg Gille
08 September 2015

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The former CEO of British supermarket giant Sainsbury's, Justin King, has joined Terra Firma Capital Partners as vice-chair and head of portfolio businesses, the GP said today.

54-year-old King left Sainsbury's in July last year, having headed the company for a decade.

He has since acted in advisory roles at the Manor Marussia Formula One team and 2 Sisters Food Group. The Terra Firma job is the first high-level role for King since leaving Sainsbury's.

"I wanted to focus on finding a significant role that would occupy me full-time but at the same time experience a lot of variety from one day to the next," King told unquote". "The fit with private equity was therefore ideal, and having spent significant time with the Terra Firma team over the summer, I was convinced by their hands-on approach to transforming businesses."

King's appointment marks the first time Terra Firma has had a vice-chairperson and a head of portfolio businesses. "I came to realise that I tried to take on a number of roles myself over the years at Terra Firma," chairperson Guy Hands told unquote". "Justin is highly skilled on the operational side of things so this will lead to better portfolio management overall. At the same time, this will allow me to focus on the deal-making side, so it should hopefully lead to more deals for Terra Firma.

"In addition, what we would like to achieve now is to have a diverse senior team of people with strong personalities, so that we can all bounce ideas off each other on corporate governance – much like the way in which we like to see our portfolio companies run," Hands said.

King has already started in his role at Terra Firma. In addition to King's appointment, Terra Firma general counsel Trudy Cooke has been promoted to chief operating officer, while head of tax Dominic Spiri was promoted to CFO.

Terra Firma recently sold German motorway services operator Autobahn Tank & Rast to Allianz for an estimated €3.5bn, and is also planning an exit of its Cineworld chain of cinemas.

Though the GP has not raised a buyout fund since 2007, it said earlier this year it would continue to invest from its €1bn capital reserves in conjunction with co-investors. It has been suggested that King could help revive fundraising efforts for the private equity outfit, which has struggled to shirk the shadow cast by its troubled ownership of music business EMI.