Philip Green says he is "sorry" for BHS demise
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London - Sir Philip Green, the former owner of BHS, has apologised to the company's employees for the collapse of the store and pledged to sit down with the pensions regulator and discuss the pension scheme during a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday.
Testament to how good the Nokia 6310 battery life is... Sir Philip Green still has one as his phone... #BHS pic.twitter.com/GC0Na5Yr6O
— CoxeyLoxey (@CoxeyLoxey) June 15, 2016
The billionaire entrepreneur was previously asked to given evidence on BHS fall into administration and liquidation during a parliamentary inquiry jointly launched by the Work and Pension Committee and the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, and during a 6 hour hearing on Wednesday Green apologised for the fall of BHS.
Philip Green pledges to sit down pension regulator
"There certainly was no intent at all on my part for anything to be like this. It didn’t need to be like this and I just want to apologise to all the BHS people who have been involved in this." Green added that the collapse of BHS was "sad" and promised to worked together with the pension regulator to help find a solution to the 571 million pounds pension deficit, adding "We want to find a solution for the 20,000 pensioners." The pension regulator has denied to rumours which speculated that Green refused to work with on a BHS pension restructuring.
pensions regulator again issues denial that it has refused to engage w Green on BHS pension restructuring pic.twitter.com/7nyhvQdvR3
— olivershah (@olivershah) June 15, 2016
However, the Arcadia Group tycoon refused to be blamed for the pension deficit, stressing he invested in BHS and didn't just take out dividends but that "stupid and idiotic" decisions had been made that led to its ultimate demise. Green acknowledged that in hindsight Dominic Chappell, leader of the consortium Retail Acquisitions was not the right buyer for BHS and was "sorry" for a deal made that ended in the loss of 11,000 jobs.
"I made a bad call in selling this business to [Chappell]" he said during the hearing. "I picked the wrong guy. I didn't do it intentionally." He blamed the fall of BHS on Retail Acquisitions failure to follow through with its turnaround plan and CVA proposal, claiming that Chappell was "stubborn." Green, who invested 35 million pounds in BHS, also denied blocking the potential sale of the department store to Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, rejecting a claim made by MP Iain Wright that his 'ego' would not have allowed BHS to be sold for 1 pound once more.
Nevertheless, the billionaire also rejected the idea of purchasing BHS back for 1 pound, if the pension deficit could be solved. "No, life has moved on," said Green as one of the committee members highlighted that things remained rather bleak for the 11,000 employees at BHS. Green stressed that there were no winners from the demise of BHS, not himself or Chappell, adding: "I think it was a very sad episode. Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong."
Green says "I haven't been able to visit shops for five weeks" and says criticism received "wholly unbalanced and unfair"
— Sarah Butler (@whatbutlersaw) June 15, 2016
Green also stressed that he felt it was unfair he was receiving the brunt of criticism for what happened BHS. "I made a bad call selling this business to RAL [Chappell’s Retail Acquisitions Limited]," concluded Green. "But other people made mistakes too, including lawyers, and now everyone says it’s just my fault...I’m a big boy, I can take a punch on the chin.... but I didn’t do this deliberately."
Photo: Parliamentary Live