If everything is relative, then EMI Group did great during the last fiscal year. After all, total losses only topped 512 million pounds ($801 million) during the recent 12-month cycle (running through March), an improvement over year-ago losses of 1.57 billion pounds ($2.46 billion).

But who’s kidding who? In its annual report, EMI parent Maltby Capital expressed a “principal uncertainty” related to loan covenants. That is, the major label is likely to experience more difficulty meeting Citigroup payment deadlines, despite a recent investor injection of 105 million pounds ($164 million).

Suddenly, the sinkhole features widening debt obligations and renewed default risk, hardly the glamour-filled existence Guy Hands must have imagined prior to the $4.7 billion acquisition in 2007.