BHS: Letter to Lady Green and further evidence published
23 June 2016
The Business, Innovation and Skills and Work & Pensions Committees have published further written evidence, including a letter to Lady Green from Iain Wright and Frank Field asking for further details on the 'complex web' of private businesses owned by the Green family and for an explanation of Sir Philip Green's role in their operation.
The Committees have also published a series of email exchanges from former Retail Acquisitions Limited Director Stephen Bourne relating to the transaction and documents from Grant Thornton, advisers to RAL, on their proposals for the restructuring of BHS.
Chair's comment
Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee said:
"During the hearings of our BHS inquiries, a whole array of further questions have been raised about how a big high-street name with 11,000 staff was sold for a £1 to someone with no experience of retail. The evidence so far points to a complex and very opaque web of privately-owned family businesses which helped make the deal possible. These complicated arrangements make it very difficult to trace where all the funds have gone. We are keen to follow the money and look forward to Lady Green in her capacity as owner and ultimate beneficiary of these companies writing to us to explain some of these arrangements and to set out what income her businesses have received from BHS."
In addition, the Committees have published a series of other documents relating to the deal to acquire BHS.
- Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of Work and Pensions Committee, and Iain Wright, Chair of Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, to Lady Green
- Letter to Committee Clerk from Stephen Bourne, former Retail Acquisitions Limited Director, including references to email correspondence, 13 June
- Proposals for BHS restructure from RAL Advisers Grant Thornton (and Olswang)
- Amendment to loan agreement RAL-BHS-Allied Exporters
- Escrow agreement North West House
- Framework agreement
- Loan acknowledgement
- Management services agreement RAL-BHS
- Agreement on fixed and floating charge Arcadia-BHS
Further information
- Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry: The sale and acquisition of BHS
- Work and Pensions Committee inquiry: Pension Protection Fund and the Pensions Regulator
- About Parliament: Select committees
- Visiting Parliament: Watch committees
Image: PA