Sir Philip Green appears at BHS hearing

 | PrintDownload

Sir-Philip-Green

Retail billionaire Sir Philip Green faced questions from MPs for six hours at a parliamentary hearing on 15 June. The former BHS owner was grilled on everything from his tax affairs to the BHS pension, with property at the heart of the debate.

He was joined by Richard Caring, a former BHS stakeholder; Alexander Dellal, director, Allied Commercial Exporters; Michael Sherwood, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs; and Neville Khan, managing partner at Deloitte.


LIVE FEED

NEWS: Green calls CVA ‘wasted opportunity’

• 3.06pm: Repeats that he is planning on sitting with the regulator and has a team working to get this over with sooner rather than later.

• 3.15pm: “The administrator never got an offer, how can you buy something when you don’t have an offer” – Green on BHS sale process.

• 3.14pm: Green promises that he will support anyone that want to buy BHS.

• 3.13pm: Green – we paid tens of millions of pounds of tax.

• 2.47pm: Green: “I am a big boy, I can take a punch on the chin but I picked the wrong guy.”

• 2.46pm: Green says he has become immune to attacks and has not been able to go to his shops for five weeks.

• 2.46pm: It is easy to see now they were not the right buyer – Green

• 2.45pm: On job losses – Green: there are jobs out there and these people move around.

• 2.37pm: Green denies any knowledge of conversations between RAL and Sports Direct.

• 2.17pm: MPs read evidence from Phelps of Duff and Phelps saying Green contacted them about administration, which he has previously denied.

• 2.16pm: Green has said the Ealing BHS store investment deal “was not his transaction”… even though it was sold to his stepson for a substantial profit…

• 2.15pm: Chappell missed out on 100m of property sales, says Green.

• 1.18pm: Green flatly ignores Fuller’s question on whether this (dodging qs) is his usual pattern of behaviour.”

• 1.11pm: Green saying that Wilton Equity and Marylebone house not relevant to BHS.

• 1pm: Ian Wright says Green is “extraordinarily thick skinned to fair questions”.

• 12.51pm: Green keeps pointing out that he has not run away.

• 12.50pm: Green: “We found the wrong guy””. Despite all the checks on the business…

• 12.49pm: Green: Would I do that deal again? No. Did I wish I didn’t do it? Yes.”

• 12.45pm: RA met with the pension regulator seven days after the deal closed and it was in the due diligence.

• 12.44pm: Green just forgot that he said that Chappell lived in fantasy land less than five minutes ago.

• 12.43pm: Green on Chappell – he had a great team, and three lawyers and he turned up with credible people.

• 12.42pm: Q: what made you think that he (Chappell) could do something different? Green: in terms of retail, I didn’t.

• 12.41pm: “He lives in there all the time” – Chappell in fantasy land, apparently.

• 12.40pm: Green would have been responsible for the pension liabilities if he had put it into administration himself.

• 12.36pm: “If the business plan that was laid down had been followed, then it would not have gone into liquidation.” BHS heard this before

• 12.30pm: Green does not think that it is Goldman’s fault. Not placing the blame.

• 12.28pm: Green: one million % would not have done business with him if they (Goldman) had said do not deal with this guy

• “Absolutely not” – whether Goldman were bought in as Chappell had less credibility than other buyers.

• 12.23pm: Grant Thornton and Olswang gave Chappell credibility. Then had 14 auditors spend three weeks living in the office investigating it.

• 12.21pm: Green: “Take a lie detector test on me if you want.”

•12.19pm: Green: “I try to avoid email so I don’t get into trouble”.

• 12.18pm: Reference to Sunday Times piece on Sutton on April 15 clearly hits a sore spot. Green getting feisty again.

NEWS: Green claims BHS sale and leaseback cash was reinvested

• 11.46am: Green: “I could be a murderer the way they have written about me, but I don’t have any guns…”

• 11.28am: Green says it would have been impossible to stop Chappell going to the regulator.

• 11.07am: Green: take comfort that we are working on it to find a solution ASAP.

• 11.06am: Green says he will share it “whatever the plan is” when it is ready…

• 11.05am: But… admits that he does not know what the plan is yet.

• 11.04am: Green: as we speak there is a team working on it.

• 11.07am: Green: it is resolvable, I am there to sort this in the correct way and I want to assure those in the pension fund.

The road to ruin. Click here for everything you need to know about BHS in the run-up to today’s inquiry.

• 10.56am: MPs staying patient though. Green avoiding answers and saying he is ready to talk rather than actually providing information.

• 10.55am: Green repeating that he is happy to address the pension issue but keeps dodging answers.

• 10.50am: Green: stupid, silly mistakes have been made on the pensions.

• 10.43am: Green repeats: “it wasn’t something I was dealing with on a regular basis” and that he can’t remember ref the pension.

• 10.42am: Q: what was the average salary of an employee of BHS? Long pause…

• 10.41am: Green repeating “with respect”, but his tone getting fiercer…

• 10.40am: Green: I want to try to get back to work after this – I have been out of work for four weeks.

• 10.37am: Green: “somebody asleep at the wheel” ref pension scheme.

• 10.36am: Green: I’m a big boy – if I wanted to park the blame I could spend the next 20 minutes blaming other people.

• 10.30am: Green: the things the regulators are asking are pretty bizarre.

• 10.29am: Green: it is not my style to blame anyone else – we are here – let’s find a solution.

• 10.28am: Green: I don’t want to blame anyone else – it is my fault.

• 10.27am: Green: “the press is outrageous and pretty rude”.

• 10.25am: Green: I think it is unfair to attack me without letting me respond. I am happy to debate and I am not running away.

• 10.24am: Q – surely you are ultimately accountable? Green – where is this conversation taking.

• 10.24am: Green – I was not involved in pension conversations, and maybe if I had been we might not be here.

• 10.23am: Q – who is responsible for the deficit? You’re not trying to blame Margaret (Downes – chairman of trustees) are you?

• 10.17am: Green: “pension trustees and auditors had spoken to us on day we bought the company, we could have fixed this mess”.

• 10.14am: Green can’t remember whose idea it was to do the sale and leaseback.

• 10.11am: “If retail was easy then everyone would be doing it.” • 10.10am: I wouldn’t even know where to phone to get money out of our bank.

• 10.05am: Q: why do we have companies? Green “I don’t understand the question?”.

• 10.04am: “3,000 stores is a big day job” – Green on Arcadia empire. • 10.03am:Green – with hindsight 2002 might have been a good time to sell.  

• 9.59am: Green struggled to divide his time between BHS and Arcadia.

• 9.58am: So far on BHS – it was the way things were done back then, strategy was not excessive, and people suggested he did things that way.

• 9.55am: Green to Fuller – “stop starring at me its making me feel uncomfortable”.

• 9.50am: I wouldn’t even know where to phone to get money out of our bank.

• 9:46am: Green could not remember the name of one of his off-shore property holding companies (Milden Hall Holdings).

• 9.43am: Green: all money made from sale and leasebacks was reinvested back into the business.

• 9.31am: Green: every single penny that was made in the UK paid tax.

• 9.30am: Green: if you look at our corporate structure it could have been much more aggressive than it was.

• 9.29am: On the tax advantages of Monaco – “it is not a secret. I had no idea I was going to stay there.”

• 9.20am: Green: the leverage used on this company was not excessive.

• 9.15am: Green: the thing that got me into trouble was having too much of a strong emotional tie with the business.

• 9am: First question to Green: what is the one key value that defines you as an individual?

• NEWS: Sir Philip Green prepares for BHS inquiry

• NEWS: Ashley bids for BHS stores

• To send feedback, e-mail amber.rolt@estatesgazette.com or tweet @AmberRoltEG or @estatesgazette