Green lands £50m from Arcadia warehouse sale
SIR Philip Green will be handed £50m after the huge warehouse that served his fallen Arcadia empire was sold.
When the tycoon lent the money interest-free to the company in 2019 as part of an emergency restructuring, it was secured on its Daventry distribution centre in Northamptonshire.
The site has now been sold by Arcadia administrators Deloitte to San Francisco based property investor Prologis, which immediately leased the warehouse to online fashion retailer Boohoo that took on more than 330 Arcadia employees.
Deloitte did not reveal the price paid for the property, but analysts have estimated its value at between £60m and £90m. The sale means Green can be repaid the £50m he is owed by Arcadia.
However, hundreds of unsecured creditors are likely to only get a tiny proportion of what is owed to them through the administration process.
Former staff also face a cut in their pensions thanks to a black hole estimated to be in excess of £200m.
Boohoo said it will use the warehouse to ‘support expansion’ and, alongside its other distribution sites, will be able to support £4bn of annual sales. Boohoo said it will invest more than £50m into the site ‘in the coming years’, creating up to 1,000 jobs.
Arcadia’s joint administrators have raised proceeds of over £600m from selling the collapsed group’s assets.
This includes its stable of brands, its property and even items of furniture at its head office created by Green & Mingarelli Design, the interior design business set up by Green’s wife Tina.
The chain’s Oxford Street store in central London is being sold under a different administration process.
When Arcadia collapsed it had debts of around £800m, raising fears that hundreds of unsecured creditors will receive a tiny proportion of what they’re owed.