Guy Hands, the founder of Terra Firma, is threatening to move part of his UK-based private equity group offshore in response to the latest tax rises on capital gains and non-domiciled residents.

In his annual review, due out today, Mr Hands gave warning that the group, which owns EMI and the Odeon/UCI cinema chain, is “concerned by the recent changes to the UK tax laws”.

The outspoken businesss leader said: “Such trends in UK taxation, making the UK a less competitive financial centre than it was, have caused us to review our UK activities and may result in future growth being pursued through our other European offices.”

Terra Firma, which has 100 employees, has offices in London, Frankfurt and Guernsey.

However, a spokesman told The Times last night: “There is absolutely no plan to move our main operations.

“This is about reviewing the expansion of our overseas operations in response to the tax changes.”

Terra Firma and its staff are understood to have paid more than £15 million in taxes last financial year.

Since 1994, Terra Firma has invested approximately €11 billion (£8.6 billion), with two thirds of that invested in the UK.

Mr Hands in his report to investors, cited by the Financial Times, said: “Recent developments in UK policy may well drive global firms and highly skilled individuals away from London at significant cost to the UK economy in terms of lost revenues and lost taxes.”

He said: “Taxing long-term capital gains more like annual income will encourage businesses to be less long-term in their approach and will undermine one of the biggest benefits of private equity investment.”

Alistair Darling, in his Budget last week, raised the base rate of capital gains tax from 10 per cent to 18 per cent and went ahead with an annual levy of £30,000 for long-term foreign residents.

Proposals by the government to target wealthy private equity executives prompted outrage in the City when announced last year. Nicholas Ferguson, whose SVG Capital invests most of its money in the British buyout firm Permira, gave warning last September against any excessive clampdown on the tax regime for buyout firms.

However, Mr Hands is the first in the industry to threaten to leave over tax changes.

It was also reported yesterday that Terra Firma may sell up to 26 aircraft for $1 billion (£500 million) to take advantage of rising demand for planes. Terra Firma acquired 182 planes when it bought the aircraft leasing company Pegasus Aviation Finance last year.