Topshop pension woes

PHILIP Green has offered to give Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Street as security to Arcadia’s retirement scheme as he prepares to close a raft of shops.

The store is being used by Green to bargain with the Pensions Regulator as he tries to convince it to allow him to slash annual payments into the scheme from £50m to £25m. The regulator is thought to be unhappy with the proposals after BHS collapsed with a £571m pension black hole shortly after Green sold it off.

The Oxford Street store has a leasehold value of around £600m compared to Arcadia’s pension deficit of £550m. Green is also preparing to close stores across his Arcadia retail empire which owns Topshop.