Sir Philip Green: I pumped £600 million into failed BHS

Sir Philip Green told MPs today that he had put more than £600 million into the failed department store chain BHS after he and his family had paid themselves £422 million in dividends.

Green has been accused of stripping cash out of the business leaving it with a multi-million pension black hole before selling it to Dominic Chappell for £1 last year. It collapsed this April, 13 months after the sale, with a £571 million pension deficit and is now being wound down with up to 11,000 jobs at risk.

But today Green said: “Between 2004 and 2009 we invested £254 million of capital into the business. Post-2009 Arcadia lent BHS £256 million on an unsecured and interest-free basis which is highly unusual. Over the next four years a further short £100 million was invested in the company. So that is £600 million invested in the company post the dividends being paid.”

Green admitted there had been “poor communications on both sides” over the pension deficit. “There were very very very few conversations with any of the trustees,” he said. “There wasn’t the right dialogue… If there was, we wouldn’t be here.”

He told MPs, whom he said had been “struggling with the balance sheet”, that the business he sold had “some additional £80 million of [capital expenditure] and £100 million of unencumbered assets”, which meant “some £800 million had gone into it post the dividends.” Green also denied that parent company Arcadia made a profit from supplying BHS with back office services.

But MPs were sceptical when he told them he didn’t really get involved with the money side of things. He said: “I have no control over them.” And when asked by pensions committee chairman Frank Field if that was because they were owned by his wife, Tina, he replied: “Yes, because I have never had an overseas bank account.” When asked if Lady Green ever shared details of her offshore property companies accounts with him, Green shook his head.

He also told Tory MP Richard Fuller, who he demanded stop staring at him: “I wouldn’t even know who to phone to take money out of our bank.”

Green told MPs that the takeover and financing of BHS had been “fairly conservative for the early 2000s” compared with how some private equity and venture capital deals were done.

Asked about his decision to live in Monaco, he said this happened after he had a health scare and was advised it would be a good place to recuperate.

The entrepreneur also came under fire from trade union Unite, which has warned that on top of the 11,000 BHS jobs in jeopardy, around 360 more could be at risk at DHL Supply Chain which provides logistics services for the retail stalwart.