Selasa, 03 Mei 2016

Betaville

Betaville

Sunday review; and Mike Ashley to save BHS? - part 2

Posted: 02 May 2016 12:46 PM PDT

It's been another tricky weekend for Sir Philip Green. In fact, the boisterous billionaire's reputation took a serious battering in the UK business press throughout the whole of last week following the confirmation of the BHS administration.

What must be particularly galling for Sir Philip is those newspapers that have up until now held back from critiquing the entrepreneur could no longer sit on the sidelines and it pretty much became open season on the pugnacious retailer.

Some of the best comment on the situation came from professional wind up merchant Alistair Osborne, business commentator of the The Times. His acerbity hit new heights in last week's columns about Sir Philip and his friends, such as Richard Caring. Alistair reckons Sir Philip would have to pump several hundreds of pounds into the BHS pension scheme (now in deficit to the tune of £571 million) to redeem his somewhat tarnished reputation. Here is a link to one of Alistair's excellent pieces:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/roll-up-roll-up-to-see-a-bhs-double-act-nk2z7q2kk?shareToken=b74fec95b2d645490900d5b85895f683

The torrent of negative of press culminated with Olly Shah's stitch up piece in the main book of yesterday's Sunday Times. Olly's "my battle with the bullying billionaire" is a truly fascinating, and highly amusing, insight into dealing with Sir Philip. Here is the link:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/focus/article1691198.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_30 

Meanwhile, The Sunday Telegraph yesterday revisited last week's tale about Mike Ashley stepping in to "save" BHS. However, the suggested deal with Mike Ashley implies the maverick sports gear retail would buy BHS but shed all pension fund liabilities. Did I read that correctly? Because if I did, I'm not sure that will fly with most stakeholders, such as BHS pensioners or the Pension Protection Fund.

There may, though, be another way for Sir Philip to sort the BHS problem out. An old contact who knows the whole Sir Philip scene pretty well suggested the smart move for the Monaco-based retailer would be to buy BHS back himself.

I could see his point but buying back BHS would probably require Sir Philip to pour hundreds of millions back into the business and the company pension scheme. And I'm not sure the billionaire is too keen on doing that...
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