2005:
The retail entrepreneur Philip Green has banked £1.2bn after awarding himself the biggest pay cheque in British corporate history. The huge dividend has come from the Arcadia fashion business, which has 2,000 outlets and spans high street names including Top Shop, Wallis and Burton. It is more than four times the group’s pre-tax profits of £253m.
http://gu.com/p/9d7v
2015:
The highest paid director at Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group received a 38% pay rise, to £1.55m, last year as the group cut 2,000 jobs.
The director, thought to be Ian Grabiner, Green’s right-hand man, was paid £1.55m in the year to 30 August 2014 according to accounts filed at Companies House. Total payments to directors rose to £4.22m, up from £4.05m a year before, despite board members dropping from five to three.
The payouts came as sales at the group, which owns the Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis outlets, remained steady at £2.71m but operating profits (before exceptional items) slid to £172.3m against £204m.
2016:
Over the past 16 years, the BHS pension fund has fallen from a £5m surplus into a £571m deficit. More than £25m was paid from BHS to its [new] owner, Retail Acquisitions, in the 13 months between the department store’s sale and it collapsing into administration, the Guardian understands.
The man behind Retail Acquisitions is Dominic Chappell, a former racing driver who has been declared bankrupt twice. Chappell owns 90% of Retail Acquisitions, which bought BHS for £1 from Sir Philip Green in March 2015.
http://gu.com/p/4tjvn
Philip Green [domiciled in Monaco] buys third super-yacht and has a fortune estimated at £3.5 billion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3510128/A-100m-floating-gin-palace-pension-scandal-scupper-Sir-Topshop-Philip-Green-faces-calls-stripped-knighthood-buys-yacht-BHS-teeters-brink-bankruptcy.html
“I doubt if Sir Philip was aware the twice-insolvent businessman’s Retail Acquisitions vehicle would use BHS money to pay off his dad’s mortgage. Or that it would be taking big “professional fees” and salaries out of the business for Chappell’s crew.”
http://www.standard.co.uk/business/jim-armitage-bhs-staff-needed-more-than-chappells-prayers-a3232901.html
“More than £25m was paid from BHS to its owner, Retail Acquisitions, in the 13 months between the department store’s sale and it collapsing into administration, the Guardian understands.”
Guardian