Sir Philip Green's Arcadia seeks £9.6 million from bust BHS

Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is looking to pocket £9.6 million from Retail Acquisitions, the company previously owned by former bankrupt Dominic Chappell, the Standard can reveal.

Retail Acquisitions, the firm with which Chappell bought now-defunct BHS for £1 in 2015, went into liquidation in May last year after a High Court battle with BHS administrator Duff & Phelps.D&P first called for Retail Acquisitions to be wound up in September 2016.

Green’s Arcadia — which owns a string of fashion brands including Topshop — is claiming £9.6 million as a creditor, and the Pension Protection Fund hopes to get £9.5 million, documents show. Retail Acquisitions faces a total claim of £25.6 million, including other creditors.

When BHS collapsed, about a year after Retail Acquisitions bought the chain, it left 11,000 jobless and had a pension deficit of £571 million. Green has since agreed to put £363 million cash into the BHS pension schemes.

The liquidators’ study into Retail Acquisitions is ongoing with “a number of transactions still requiring further investigation”. This is despite it having no assets. Chappell said last year that the winding-up application was an attempt by Green to take funds available to other BHS creditors.

Green declined to comment. Neither joint liquidators Duff & Phelps and Milner Broadman and Partners, nor Chappell, could be reached for comment.