The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Pensions risk caused Green to sell BHS on Tycoon later paid £363m
Sir Philip Green sold British Home Stores (BHS) to avoid liability for the pension scheme should the firm go bust, it has emerged.
The Pension Regulator has published its report into the sale of BHS after concerns about the pension scheme when it collapsed last year.
The winding down of the high-street giant affected 11,000 jobs and around 19,000 pension holders.
Sir Philip, who owned BHS for 15 years before offloading it for £1 to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell in 2015, agreed to pay £363million to settle the pension scheme of the collapsed retailer in February.
The report said: “We argued that the main purpose of the sale was to postpone BHS’s insolvency to prevent a liability to the schemes falling due while it was part of the Taveta group of companies ultimately owned by the Green family.”
A spokesman for Sir Philip said: “This is the first and possibly the only time that a private individual, who has not been found to have done anything wrong, has voluntarily rescued a pension scheme. The matter is now closed.”
Speaking at the time it was agreed, Sir Philip said it represented a “significantly better” outcome than if schemes entered the Pension Protection Fund – money set aside to protect people if their pension fund becomes insolvent.
He added: “I have made a voluntary contribution of up to £363million to enable the trustees of the BHS pension schemes to achieve a significantly better outcome than the schemes entering the PPF, which was the goal from the outset.”
The fallout from the collapse of BHS sparked a parliamentary inquiry and left both its high-profile former owners potentially facing a criminal investigation.