BHS liquidation kicks off retailer's final chapter

FRP Advisory has been charged with winding down the retailer’s remaining assets – a process that can, in some instances, take a number of years.

Money raised from the process will be used to return funds to BHS creditors.

BHS, formerly owned by Arcadia tycoon Sir Philip Green, slumped into administration in April, around a year after Green sold the business to Retail Acquisitions for £1.

The retailer, which had around 11,000 employees, shuttered its 164 stores and buckled with a pension deficit of around £571m for which Green has been heavily criticised. MPs backed a call to strip him of his knighthood.

Better returns for creditors

Administrators Duff & Phelps reportedly resisted kicking off the liquidation process in the hope of securing better returns for creditors.

But the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) believe liquidation is the best option for members of BHS’s pension scheme.

PPF head of restructuring and insolvency Malcolm Weir said: “We believe the liquidation is the right way to secure the best possible recovery for the pension schemes and other creditors of the insolvent company.

“The liquidator will now be able to progress all remaining issues, including the leases and the ongoing investigatory work.”

’Best chance of salvaging money’

Work and Pensions Committee chair MP Frank Field, who led the investigation into the retailer’s demise, said: “This is another milestone in the collapse of BHS that Sir Philip Green sailed away from. At this stage, though, it is welcome.

“It gives the PPF’s preferred administrator – rather than Sir Philip’s – the best chance of salvaging some money for the pension schemes.

“It does beg the question, though, of why the BHS pensioners are having to jostle for position, when Sir Philip promised months ago he would ‘sort’ their pension payments.”