BHS Filing for administration

How do people like Sir Philip Green get made a SIR?

Sounds like he got rich and famous for being bent.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Green

quite the spender:

For his son's bar mitzvah in 2005, he spent £4 million on a three-day event for over 200 friends and family in the French Riviera. He also hired Andrea Bocelli and Destiny's Child to perform. For his nephew, Matt, he threw a Bar Mitzvah at Madame Tussauds, where Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh were guests and One Direction performed. Matt and Chloe shared a birthday party in December 2011, at One Mayfair, where Rihanna sang, and many personal friends of the family attended. The star-studded bash was featured in The Sun newspaper and cost over £1 million.[21] For his 50th birthday, he flew 200 guests in a chartered Airbus A300 to a hotel in Cyprus for a three-day toga party, where they were serenaded by Tom Jones and Rod Stewart, who was reportedly paid £750,000 for a 45-minute set. For his 55th birthday, he flew 100 guests 8,500 miles in two private jets from London Stansted Airport. They arrived at the exclusive Maldives resort of Four Seasons: Landaagiraavaru, an eco-spa on a private Indian Ocean island.[22]

Among Green's more extravagant possessions are a 208 ft/£32 million Benetti yacht Lionheart[23] and a £20 million Gulfstream G550 private jet.[20] For his birthday, his wife bought him a solid gold Monopoly set, featuring his own acquisitions.
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though what I don't like about him is that he put the company in his wife's name and she lives in Monaco as a tax exile... very dodgy...
 
I see the hate brigade are out in full force.

Yeah it's all Phil Green's fault.

I wonder, will the pension trustees be stripped of their ability to ever oversee a pension fund again, will they be thrown in prison for gross negligence? Of course they wont.

This whole thing is a circus. There are tons of companies in this country and around the world who have huge pension deficits. It just so happens that BHS have hit the wall so its in the spotlight.

But yeah, its all capitalisms fault. Its got nothing to do with quantitative easing that has essentially killed pensions, brought on by profligate governments who can't control spending, egged on by a public who dare not face the facts that taxes have to go up if they want to continue receiving the level of government entitlements they've become accustomed to.

Yep, pin it on the big bad boogey men business owners. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Pension trustees say the fund need x, they give x, the forecasts turn out to be dog droppings, but no, it's the fault of capitalism clearly. No regulatory or governmental failure here!
 
dowie said:
though what I don't like about him is that he put the company in his wife's name and she lives in Monaco as a tax exile... very dodgy...
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From a purely factual point of view his wife is South African and not really a "tax exile" like he would be if he was non-dom (I vaguely recall he gave up that status then transferred everything to his wife's name). Not that it changes the morality of it.

I will say this about the pension black hole and the dividends he paid to his wife - depending on the type of pension it's entirely possible the black hole is little more than an actuarial deficit rather than an actual underpayment by the company. Essentially prior to the financial crash the pension may have been fully funded and dividends could be justified. However, after the financial crash the pension investments that previously yielded a certain value of assets would no longer be worth as much. Because of this the dividends may have been paid over when there was no black hole, or when there was no foreseeable prediction that there would be one. Although I haven't checked the actual history and this may all be nonsense.
 
From what I've read, Green paid £200m for BHS took out over £400m in dividends to family members etc - quite legally - and then dumped it for £1, seems to me the system that allowed him to do this is what's at fault here.

Shame for the staff but I won't miss BHS any more than I miss Woolworths.
 
Pudney said:
From a purely factual point of view his wife is South African and not really a "tax exile" like he would be if he was non-dom (I vaguely recall he gave up that status then transferred everything to his wife's name). Not that it changes the morality of it.
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yeah but the whole putting the money in her name thing does stink... if Monaco didn't exist as a tax haven (nor any other location) then I'd wager they'd have a main home together in the UK

I will say this about the pension black hole and the dividends he paid to his wife - depending on the type of pension it's entirely possible the black hole is little more than an actuarial deficit rather than an actual underpayment by the company. Essentially prior to the financial crash the pension may have been fully funded and dividends could be justified. However, after the financial crash the pension investments that previously yielded a certain value of assets would no longer be worth as much. Because of this the dividends may have been paid over when there was no black hole, or when there was no foreseeable prediction that there would be one. Although I haven't checked the actual history and this may all be nonsense.
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that is quite likely the case - the dividends were paid in the early 00s before the financial crisis AFAIK like 02-04 or something IIRC
 
Waits for the Daily Mail to say that everything is/was completely legal, above board, and morally right. While also accusing the 11K staff that will be out of work as being dirty benefit scroungers who should work sweeping the streets for their dole money. :rolleyes:
 
No one rushing out like they did at Port Talbot yet the effect is just as damaging. :p

I'm quite surprised that M&S haven't gone in the past so the fall of BHS will only strengthen them. Our local BHS had a lame last ditch effort to enter the food market. That may have saved M&S but too late for BHS
 
Admiral Huddy said:
No one rushing out like they did at Port Talbot yet the effect is just as damaging. :p

I'm quite surprised that M&S haven't gone in the past so the fall of BHS will only strengthen them. Our local BHS had a lame last ditch effort to enter the food market. That may have saved M&S but too late for BHS
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I was thinking when News of the World went under and a lot were taking on those people.
 
twist3d0n3 said:
pics of daughters?
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Just one of em (the eldest)..

Clue.. They'll always be my babies !!


9UoKp84.jpg
 
Pudney said:
I will say this about the pension black hole and the dividends he paid to his wife - depending on the type of pension it's entirely possible the black hole is little more than an actuarial deficit rather than an actual underpayment by the company. Essentially prior to the financial crash the pension may have been fully funded and dividends could be justified. However, after the financial crash the pension investments that previously yielded a certain value of assets would no longer be worth as much. Because of this the dividends may have been paid over when there was no black hole, or when there was no foreseeable prediction that there would be one. Although I haven't checked the actual history and this may all be nonsense.
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The pension fund was marginally in surplus when Green bought BHS. It then went into deficit but was back into a small surplus in 2008 when the financial crisis hit.
 
The_Abyss said:
The pension fund was marginally in surplus when Green bought BHS. It then went into deficit but was back into a small surplus in 2008 when the financial crisis hit.
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Sounds like the deficit has been caused by the fall in the value of investments rather than any systematic under funding by BHS. I assume this is a defined benefits scheme? This is one of the reasons they are so unsustainable to private companies which can't rely on public funds to cover any deficits caused by sharp fall in investment values.
 
Im not really surprised. The only experience i've had is the Stevenage branch, which hasn't changed in since the 90s by the looks of it. The store and it's contents that is.
 
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