City AM’s retail and property reporter, Helen Cahill looks forward to tomorrow’s appearance by Sir Philip Green before the Parliamentary committees investigating the collapse of retail chain, BHS. Our Business Risk Adviser Nick Hood provides his thoughts.
Hood said: “My feeling is that the thrust of any strategy being set will be to defend his record of managing BHS up to the point it was sold. He will say he didn’t underinvest and didn’t strip it of all of its money – and he’ll say it was in reasonable shape when he sold it.
“He will say: you can’t blame me for the pension deficit because the actuarial changes in terms of bond yields are not things he can influence. He’ll say he can’t be accused of causing the deficit, and that it’s down to the trustees.
“And then, of course, Green will say the reason BHS has gone bust is because of Dominic Chappell and his poor management – he will gloss over the fact that he knew what a lightweight Chappell was…..”