BHS tycoon’s £2m mansion windfall
Sir Philip’s man makes more money
HE was heavily criticised for his role in the collapse of department store BHS which has put the pensions of thousands of staff at risk.
But Sir Philip Green’s right-hand man has managed to further secure his own financial future after selling his home for £2 million.
In one of Scotland’s biggest recent property transactions, 57-year-old Ian Grabiner sold his house in an exclusive Glasgow suburb.
He is chief executive of Sir Philip’s Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, Burtons, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, and is also a director of Taveta, which sold off BHS for £1 despite the company having built up a massive pension deficit.
During the summer, MPs said Mr Grabiner had ‘serious questions to answer’ over the collapse of BHS and the loss of 11,000 jobs.
Mr Grabiner hit the headlines six years ago when he paid pop star Pixie Lott £70,000 to sing at his daughter’s 18th birthday party in Glasgow.
Now we can reveal that his imposing sandstone mansion was quietly sold off for £2 million at the height of the BHS scandal.
Registers Of Scotland records show that Mr Grabiner secured the seven-figure sum in August for the property, where he lived with his American wife Tracy and three daughters.
It is understood he has moved to London, where he and his wife already own another luxury home.
Mr Grabiner came north from his native London in the 1980s to run the What Everyone Wants retail chain. He later joined Sir Tom Hunter at his Sports Division empire in Ayrshire.
He is believed to have picked up £2 million from his investment in e-commerce pioneer Reality, when it was sold to Great Universal Stores in 2000 for £35 million.
Last year, it was reported he received a 38 per cent rise in salary from Sir Philip to £1.55 million as BHS shed 2,000 jobs.
Dave Gill of shopworkers’ union Usdaw said: ‘Reports of people at the top of Arcadia group engaging in big money activities are not comfortable reading for the 11,000 BHS workers who lost their jobs this year.’
Mr Grabiner, approached through Arcadia, declined to comment.