Sir Shifty’s down to his last 2 yachts!
SINCE roly-poly retailer Sir Philip Green offered to ‘sort’ the £571million black hole in BHS’s pension scheme, there has been much speculation about if and when he would indeed get his chequebook out.
Now the blustering billionaire has no excuse. For I can disclose that Sir Shifty has flogged the superyacht Lionheart, pictured above, on which he used to entertain model Kate Moss and pop mogul Simon Cowell.
The sale price is not known, but Green reportedly paid $50million to buy the 208-foot gin palace ten years ago. ‘The yacht has been sold and the new owner changed the name,’ a broker confirms.
The three-storey vessel, which sleeps up to 12 people and has a crew of 18, has now been registered under the name Lioness V. Sir Philip declines to comment, but the new owners are believed to be from the UK and the home port of the vessel, which sails under a British ensign, is Douglas on the Isle of Man.
Its new owners use the superyacht privately and are also chartering it to plutocrats for up to £563,000 a week in high season. Marketing literature boasts of the boat’s ‘show-stopping’ pool area, ‘lavish cinema’ and ‘several options for dining’.
The tycoon was dubbed ‘Philip Greed’ after he and his family banked more than £400million in dividends from BHS during his 15 years at the helm, before selling the High Street chain for £1 in 2015 to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell.
If Green, who was accused of ‘cowboy capitalism’, needs to raise any more cash to support the 20,000 members of the BHS pension scheme, he could always sell his two
other yachts. He and his Monte Carlobased wife, Tina, took delivery of the newest just last month. Also named Lionheart, the £100million monster is the length of a football pitch and has a helipad on its upper deck.
The couple, whose fortune is estimated at £3.5 billion, also own the 109-foot superyacht Lionchase, which is used mostly by their two grown-up children, Chloe and Brandon.
It’s enough to make Green’s former BHS workers feel rather seasick.