Former BHS boss Sir Philip Green spent more on his super yacht than he invested into failed store
Top Shop owner has been accused of allowing BHS’s 163 shops to become run-down before selling them on
FORMER BHS tycoon Sir Philip Green lavished more on his latest yacht than on the failed chain’s stores in his last five years in charge.
The billionaire forked out £100million on the 300ft vessel Lionheart.
His third luxury yacht, it has four storeys, a swimming pool, helipad and beauty salon and was delivered to him this week in the Mediterranean.
The retail tycoon told MPs in a letter that was published yesterday that he spent £96.2 million on 163 BHS stores between 2009 and 2014. In the final two years of his ownership of the chain, he spent just £10 million.
However Sir Philip was not always so penny-pinching with the high street stalwart. During 2004 and 2009, he invested £254 million, according to the letter which was sent from Sir Philip to the chairs of the Business and Work and Pensions Committees, who are looking into the circumstances surrounding the collapse of BHS.
Sir Philip has been criticised for allowing BHS stores to become rundown and dilapidated before selling the business, essentially contributing to attempts to turn around the chain.
Revelations of the sums he paid into the retail group came days after the Top Shop owner took delivery of a £100 million superyacht in the Mediterranean. The Lionheart yacht took four years to build, is four storeys high and the length of a football pitch.
The boat is Sir Philip’s third luxury yacht and is understood to have a hot tub, swimming pool, helipad and beauty salon.
Work and Pensions Committee chairman Frank Field suggested that Sir Philip was making a last-ditch attempt to influence his committee’s report on the collapse of BHS.
Mr Field said: "Sir Philip is aware we are writing our report and is suddenly volunteering all manner of last-minute assistance."
Sir Philip's reputation has taken a battering since BHS collapsed in April, leaving behind a £571 million pension deficit and putting 11,000 jobs at risk.
The billionaire, who owned the retailer for 15 years until 2015, has come under fire for taking £400 million in dividends from the company and then selling it to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1.
In the letter to MPs, Sir Philip also insists that he tried to support a Sports Direct rescue deal for BHS.
He claims he offered to add £5 million to the £10 million offered by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct for BHS, although Mr Ashley’s bid was rejected by administrators as unacceptable.
This “can now put an end to the suggestion that I tried to block a sale of the business”, Green wrote to MPs probing the collapse.
“It is clear that we invested substantially in the business, we lent substantial sums to the business and we gave Retail Acquisitions every chance with a solid platform to take the business forward,” Green wrote.
