Analysis: Who are the main players in the saga of BHS?

Sir Philip and Lady Tina Green

Sir Philip and Lady Tina Green met in 1985. At the time, Tina was running a Knightsbridge boutique and Sir Philip was the chairman of discount retailer Amber Day, having left school at 16.

The pair married in 1990 and have two children.

The Greens became involved in BHS in 2000, when it was acquired for £200m from Storehouse. 

Sir Philip transferred ownership of Arcadia and BHS to Lady Green in 2004. Lady Green has been a resident of Monaco since 1998. 

Despite owning BHS for 15 years, for the purposes of the ongoing joint investigation by the Work and Pensions Committee and the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Lady Green is not required to appear. It was judged that Sir Philip would be able to answer their enquiries.

The family’s net worth is estimated at £3.2bn, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

The Greens have come under fire for the amount of money they made from BHS. The retailer’s accounts show that BHS paid five dividends between 2002 and 2004, which totalled £422m and mainly went to the Green family.

However, this came at a time when BHS was profitable – it made £890m in revenues and £121m in pre-tax profits in 2004.

Overall, the Greens are thought to have netted £587m from BHS, in dividends, rent and loan interest.

However, Sir Philip also wrote off £210m in loans when he sold the business to Retail Acquisitions for £1 in March 2015. In addition, he left behind £64m in cash and £100m in property.

Retail Acquisitions

The company was founded in November 2014 and was previously called Swiss Rock Ventures before changing its name last March shortly before buying BHS from Sir Philip Green for £1.

At the time Retail Acquisitions acquired BHS, the people associated with the company were chairman Keith Smith, directors Stephen Bourne and Dominic Chappell, solicitors Mark Tasker and Edward Parladorio and company director Lennart Henningson. Bourne and Tasker have since resigned from Retail Acquisitions.

It is understood that no one on the management team had any previous experience in retail prior to acquiring BHS.

Dominic Chappell

Dominic Chappell is understood to own 90% of Retail Acquisitions.

The 49-year-old former racing driver was a relative unknown before acquiring BHS. However, his past has not been without controversy. Chappell, who was educated at Millfield School in Street, Somerset, has been declared bankrupt three times.

During his stint as BHS’s owner, it was reported that Chappell loaned £1.5m from Retail Acquisitions to a firm called BHS Sweden, which has no links to the embattled retailer.

Chief executive Darren Topp is believed to have ordered the loan to be reimbursed, but the repayment was reportedly £50,000 short.

Pension Protection Fund 

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is built on a levy on UK pension schemes and is insurance against potential pension black holes in the event of an insolvency, as in the case of BHS.

It is not funded by the taxpayer and is run independently from government, having been established under the provisions of the Pensions Act 2004.

The PPF has been left holding a bill for £275m, according to chief executive Alan Rubenstein. However, a single scheme does not have the potential to bring down the fund.

The PPF has come under scrutiny for the role it played in BHS’s downfall. There has been claim and counter-claim about what efforts were made to safeguard the scheme in recent years, and who knew what when.

The Pensions Regulator

The Pensions Regulator has been heavily criticised by MPs for not having more control over BHS.

It was claimed that the regulator only learned of the sale to Retail Acquisitions via the media. The Pensions Regulator chief executive Lesley Titcomb told MPs that, although the regulator was aware a sale of BHS could take place, it had no idea that it had been sold, or of Retail Acquisitions’ involvement, until reading about it in the newspapers.

Green disputed that and Arcadia’s company secretary wrote a letter to the joint committee that rubbished the majority of Titcomb’s evidence, including that she was unaware of the £1 sale.

These revelations lead Richard Fuller MP to tell Titcomb: “For good reasons or bad, you don’t sound like much of a regulator.”

Frank Field MP

The London-born Labour MP is a political veteran who has taken a confrontational stance towards Sir Philip Green.

Field, 73, was first elected to Parliament in 1979 and has held his Merseyside seat of Birkenhead ever since. He was soon on the Labour front bench as Michael Foot’s education spokesman. After years away from front-bench politics, he returned in 1997 as minister for welfare reform in the early years of Tony Blair’s reign.

Field took on the chairmanship of the Work and Pensions Select Committee last June.

He has courted controversy by suggesting that Sir Philip Green should lose his knighthood if he does not contribute more to BHS’s pension deficit. “Sir Philip is a master of bullying, but he will find that Parliament isn’t for being bullied,” said Field.

Next month’s appearance by Green before Field’s committee should make for compelling viewing.

Iain Wright MP 

Wright is less experienced than his counterpart Frank Field, but he still boasts a solid political CV. The 44-year-old was elected MP for his home town of Hartlepool in 2004 and has retained the seat ever since. Between June 2009 and May 2010, he served as parliamentary private secretary to health minister Rosie Winterton in Gordon Brown’s Labour government.

Wright took on the role as Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee chairman last June, replacing fellow Labour MP Adrian Bailey.

As well as probing BHS’s collapse, Wright’s committee is also investigating working practices at Sports Direct. However, unlike Sir Philip Green, Mike Ashley has so far declined offers to give evidence. Wright must be prepared for a summer of heavyweight battles.

Lord Myners

The former Marks & Spencer chairman has been invited to lead a team of experts that will help the MPs probing BHS’s collapse.

Myners is a long-time adversary of Sir Philip Green, having been a key player in scuppering the Arcadia tycoon’s attempts to buy M&S in 2004.

Myners, who served as city minister when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, has already inflamed past tensions by reportedly saying Green should “calm down” prior to the MP-led inquiry kicking off.

His comments came after Green attacked Frank Field, who is co-leading the MPs’ inquiry. Green claimed Field was “clearly prejudiced” and called for his resignation. Field had said the tycoon should “be stripped of his knighthood” if he did not contribute to clearing BHS’s £571m pension deficit.