Twist in BHS saga as holding firm takes legal action against Arcadia

LIQUIDATORS for BHS have begun legal action against Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia retail empire.

Papers have been filed in the High Court by lawyers representing SHB Realisations, the holding company for BHS, which is now in the hands of restructuring firm FRP Advisory. In the documents, SHB is named as the claimant and Arcadia Group, Sir Philip’s company which is behind shops such as Miss Selfridge and Topshop, is the defendant.

No other details of the action, which was first reported in the Mail on Sunday, have been made public. After its collapse, BHS was placed into the hands of administrator Duff & Phelps, before FRP Advisory was appointed as joint administrator in July. It was eventually appointed liquidator of BHS last December, meaning it is handling the sale of the retailer’s assets in order to pay creditors.

Duff & Phelps had protested about an attempt to push the retailer into liquidation amid claims that it could recover more money for creditors without a duplication of adviser fees.

However, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the company’s biggest unsecured creditor, put pressure on the business to move into liquidation.

The case is the latest twist in the saga for Sir Philip after BHS went into administration in April last year, putting 11,000 people out of work, and throwing its pension fund into jeopardy, after it recorded a deficit of £571m.

In February, Sir Philip settled a longrunning dispute over who was responsible for its retirement scheme by paying £363m into the pension fund, amid calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood.

In June, it was revealed that Taveta Investments, the parent company of the Arcadia group, had been forced to make £130m of writedowns last year, in part due to BHS’S collapse.

FRP Advisory declined to comment. Arcadia could not be reached for comment.