Charles Allen takes control of in-debt EMI

BELEAGURED music company EMI has given chairman Charles Allen executive control of the business in the wake of the pending departure of Elio Leoni-Sceti, chief executive of EMI's recorded music division.

Former ITV boss Allen became non-executive chairman of EMI in January, and was yesterday named executive chair by Terra Firma Partners, which purchased EMI in 2007 for 4.2 billion. Leoni-Sceti will leave later this month.

The changes come at a crucial time for EMI, whose artists include Pink Floyd, Coldplay and Robbie Williams. It is scrambling to prevent its recorded music business from defaulting on its debts as bankers at Citigroup, which backed the Terra Firma buy-out, threaten to take control of EMI.

Allen, 53, was executive chairman of Granada from 2001 to 2004, and then chief executive of ITV until 2007. He said yesterday that his goals for the EMI music business remain the same as those of his predecessor. "This is a great business – our task is to ensure it has a great future," he said.

Terra Firma must raise 120 million in the coming months to avoid a debt default that would give control of the music operation over to Citigroup. The US bank is owed more than 3bn as a result of the ill-fated takeover.