Sir Philip Green must repay £400m or lose knighthood, says MP

[sasguru]

Been looking into it. It was making a loss of 16 million a year when he bought it. He turned it round to make a profit of 100 million within a year and kept that going for a few years.

[AtW]

Been looking into it. It was making a loss of 16 million a year when he bought it. He turned it round to make a profit of 100 million within a year and kept that going for a few years.

Yes, and that magical turnaround is a little bit unexplained, especially given lack of success soon thereafter!

I reckon what happened was that some non-material things, including future obligations to pension fund were revalued, that gave big profit jump which was taken out as dividends thus sucking the cash out of business.

btw, £110 mln profit on £ 890 mln sales is very high figure.

[saptastic]

What is really bad is the new 'owner' Dominic Chappell who has a terrible business history bought it for a pound and took out £25m from a struggling business.
Again maybe all legal but really is unbelievable that he can milk such a big business that employs 11,000 people
He even tried to take out £1.5m last week just before the administrators were called.

BHS owner Dominic Chappell moved £1.5m out of troubled retailer | Business | The Guardian

He wasn't even in the UK this week as the business went bust

[sasguru]

Yes, and that magical turnaround is a little bit unexplained, especially given lack of success soon thereafter!

I reckon what happened was that some non-material things, including future obligations to pension fund were revalued, that gave big profit jump which was taken out as dividends thus sucking the cash out of business.

btw, £110 mln profit on £ 890 mln sales is very high figure.

No use speculating. I'm sure the accounts have been filed.
It didn't go bust soon thereafter, was steadily making profits till the late noughties. I can't explain how he turned it around, at the time they just said he was good at retailing.
Can't help not liking him though....

[AtW]

What is really bad is the new 'owner' Dominic Chappell who has a terrible business history bought it for a pound and took out £25m from a struggling business.

He was the owner, must be totally legal

What's not legal is trading when insolvent, so was the business solvent when they were taking money out of it whilst continuing to trade?

[sasguru]

What is really bad is the new 'owner' Dominic Chappell who has a terrible business history bought it for a pound and took out £25m from a struggling business.
Again maybe all legal but really is unbelievable that he can milk such a big business that employs 11,000 people
He even tried to take out £1.5m last week just before the administrators were called.

BHS owner Dominic Chappell moved £1.5m out of troubled retailer | Business | The Guardian

He wasn't even in the UK this week as the business went bust

As atw says that is Rover stylie

[AtW]

No use speculating. I'm sure the accounts have been filed.
It didn't go bust soon thereafter, was steadily making profits till the late noughties. I can't explain how he turned it around, at the time they just said he was good at retailing.
Can't help not liking him though....

I have not heard any details on how his magical turnaround worked, it's not like he secured exclusive deal to sell iPhones or something like that which would have given sudden big advantage in the market.

[sasguru]

I have not heard any details on how his magical turnaround worked, it's not like he secured exclusive deal to sell iPhones or something like that which would have given sudden big advantage in the market.

Well you probably don't understand retail, just like me
If you think he revalued pension stuff how come it was in surplus in 2008. That's when the rot seems to have started. It had 4 profitable years without divis being removed till then.

[AtW]

If you think he revalued pension stuff how come it was in surplus in 2008.

Why do you think?

Look at year when he bought it - 2000.

[AtW]

After scum Brown fooked over pension funds with (attention) DIVIDEND TAX CREDIT REMOVAL it was writing on the wall for final salary pensions, so smart owners of Bhs decided to sell it - their names won't be in mud after this one, Greens on the other hand...

Watch "Wall Street" movie again - Gecko bought company with pension fund that had surplus, it's break up value was higher than valuation of the whole...