Advisers to Retail Acquisitions Limited questioned on BHS purchase
24 May 2016
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee and Work and Pensions Committee hold a joint evidence session for their separate inquiries into BHS. The Committees hear from advisers to Retail Acquisitions Limited and BHS Pension Fund Trustees.
- Watch Parliament TV: BHS
- Inquiry: The sale and acquisition of BHS
- Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
- Inquiry: Pension Protection Fund and Pensions Regulator
- Work and Pensions Committee
Witnesses
Wednesday 25 May 2016, Wilson Room, Portcullis House
At 9am
Panel 1: BHS Current Pension Fund Trustees
- Chris Martin (Chair)
- Mike Lymath
- Phil Kitchen
- Jason Hyde
Panel 2: BHS Pension Fund former Trustees
- Margaret Downes (former Chair)
- Siobhan Forey
- Richard de Dombal
Panel 3: Advisers to Retail Acquisitions Ltd
- Stephen Hermer, Partner, Olswang
- Mark Byers, Partner, Grant Thornton
- Andrew Frangos, Chief Executive, Cornhill Capital
Questions raised by Pension Regulator's interaction with BHS
The Pension Regulator's "worrying" timeline of their interaction with BHS, published late yesterday, raises a number of questions for the trustees tomorrow morning, as well as other key players - including more for TPR themselves.
- Why did the Regulator seemingly have no contact with BHS between expressing concerns about the 2012 valuation in March 2011 and being told it would be late in June 2013?
- Why was so little progress made on scrutinising that valuation - and its 23 year recovery plan - between its receipt in September 2013 and the Regulator hearing about Project Thor in June 2014?
- The Regulator repeatedly asked the trustees to request further information on Project Thor from Arcadia and their advisers Deloitte between July and September 2014. Why was this not forthcoming?
- Why was the Regulator not at the table for meetings on Thor and, with the exception of the meeting on 4 March 2015, the sale?
- What happened at the meeting between Sir Philip Green, the Regulator, the trustees and advisers on 4 March 2015? And why was the Regulator still "working on" a follow up letter when they heard that BHS had been sold?
Further questions for sales advisers
Further questions that the Committees have to the advisors on all aspects of the sale include:
- What checks did advisors carry out on Retail Acquisitions Ltd?
- Did Arcadia act as responsible sellers of BHS?
- Did Retail Acquisitions Ltd have credible plans for BHS?
- Who was looking after the interests of pension scheme members?
Chairs' comments
Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:
"Project Thor looks like a great missed opportunity for BHS and its pensioners. We have only begun exploring the circumstances of its failure but the evidence paints a worrying picture of the last 18 months of Sir Philip Green's tenure at BHS.
It seems that on offer then was a bigger pension than they now might get from the PPF. The build-up to the sale to Dominic Chappell is murkier still. We will be asking key players to further enlighten us."
Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee said:
"We heard evidence on Monday that Sir Philip Green & Arcadia knew, via Goldman Sachs, of Dominic Chappell's bankruptcies and his lack of retail experience. We heard that they would have been aware of this 4 months before the deal was finally done and yet they went ahead and sold BHS to Chappell's RAL consortium.
We now want to hear from RAL's advisers what steps they took to establish that Dominic Chappell had a credible business plan to turn around BHS."
Further information
Image: PA