Sir Philip Green’s wife spent millions on London homes as BHS collapsed
Sir Philip Green’s wife spent millions on London properties while thousands of employees working at now-collapsed BHS prepared to lose their jobs.
Details of Lady Tina Green’s spending were laid bare in the ‘Pandora Papers – leaked offshore financial documents published by the BBC.
Tina Green used a company located in the British Virgin Islands to buy a £15m Mayfair apartment and £10.6m home for the couple’s daughter Chloe, located by Buckingham Palace.
Another Mayfair flat was purchased for £4.95m and a £7m property in Belgravia following the sale of the beleaguered department store chain.
Department store chain collapse
The chain was sold for £1 in March 2015 to Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt businessman and racing driver with no experience in retail.
The BHS chain went bust in the spring of 2016, with 11,000 jobs lost and a hole of up to £571m left in its pension fund.
The couple declined to comment to journalists and said the matters were private. “I don’t want to get involved,” Sir Philip Green told the Evening Standard.
Lawyers for Tina Green stressed that the use of offshore companies to buy property was legal and that the properties were not linked to either Sir Philip or BHS.
The leaked documents have revealed the offshore dealings of politicians and billionaires from across the world.
Tina Green received £50m in May from fashion brand Topshop’s administration, CityA.M. reported earlier this year.
The £50m was lent to Topshop as part of an emergency restructuring in 2019 and secured against a warehouse in Northamptonshire.