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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Graeme Wearden

Green under pressure over BHS scandal, as UK business confidence slides – as it happened

Sir Philip Green
Sir Philip Green, pictured, has been compared, unfavourably, to Robert Maxwell over the BHS pension black hole. Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters

Afternoon summary: Green's gong in danger

That’s a good moment to wrap up for the day. Here’s a brief reminder of the key points.

Sir Philip Green is under mounting pressures after a parliamentary report into the collapse of BHS was released.

MPS accused him of ‘systematically’ taking money out of the company, failing to address its pension deficit, and generally acting in a way incompatible with a man with a knighthood for services to retail.

Frank Field, who co-chaired the inquiry, raised the stakes by claiming that Green was more egregious than Robert Maxwell, who raided the Mirror Group pension fund more than two decades ago.

Field told the Today Programme that:

Unlike Maxwell, who was bankrupt when he threw himself off his boat [in 1991], this person [Green] has wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and he should act.

Field also compared Green to Napoleon, saying he ignored advice from colleagues and advisers and is most culpable for the collapse of BHS (which he sold last year).

Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister, has signalled that she wants to reform capitalism and stamp out irresponsible corporate behaviour after the scandal.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron and Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith have both called for Green to lose his knighthood.

Bookmaker Paddy Power reckon Green is odds-on to lose his knighthood by the end of 2017.

A petition calling for it to be revoked is attracting hundreds of new signatures per minute (57k and counting...).

But Green isn’t the only one under fire. Dominic Chappell, who bought BHS last year, was accused of having his hands in the till by MPs.

The Institute of Directors has weighed in, criticising City grandee Lord Grabiner for his failings as chairman to Green’s Arcadia Group.

And in other news....

Business optimism in the UK has slumped by the most since 2009, as manufacturers are hit by uncertainty over the EU referendum.

The TUC union has urged the government to act immediately, before workers lose their jobs in a wave of Brexit worries.

And the main corporate news is that Yahoo’s long decline has ended in a takeover by Verizon:

Here’s the rest of the day’s key developments:

A BHS worker has lifted the lid on conditions at the retail chain since it fell into administration last month.

It’s a pretty depressing tale of plummeting morale, gnawing uncertainty, dwindling stocks and some baffling products emerging from the company’s stores as its decline continues.

Here’s a couple of highlights:

Friday 17 June

The store is much busier than it was a few months go, but the initial buzz that followed BHS falling into administration in April has died down. It’s possible that shoppers have realised that, regardless of the signs hanging from the ceiling and the posters in the windows, everything still costs exactly what it did just under a month ago.

I spend a mind-numbingly dull shift folding towels to help maintain the illusion that the place is still a fully functioning department store, rather than a shambolic jumble sale. While there appears to be an abundance of goods, many of our popular lines are almost sold out and the gaps are filled with items of dubious appeal that have been languishing unsold elsewhere in the building for months or even years. Damaged items have started appearing on the shelves, as well as other interesting storeroom discoveries, such as toilet brushes without brushes, handles or lids. These have not proved a big seller.

Wednesday 29 June

Everything in the lighting department is now for sale at 50% of its actual original value. I spend four hours alone in the menswear department, unpacking boxes of garish shorts and placing them on hangers. It is a new low point.

Since the company collapsed, the administrators have cut day-to-day running costs by, among other things, no longer paying the royalty fees required to play music over the shop speakers. The deafening silence somehow makes what is already a fairly depressing atmosphere considerably worse. It was previously possible to gauge, to some extent, the financial health of BHS through the music that was played in its stores. When I first started in late 2007, it was a mix of contemporary chart stuff along with golden oldies. Shortly before the first wave of rumours began circulating that Green was looking to offload the company, the playlist switched to almost entirely forgotten 80s pop songs (Howard Jones, anyone?). I surmised that they were all songs over 30 years old upon which the copyright had probably expired. This continued until Chappell took over. The big-name chart songs returned to the playlist for a while, only to be replaced shortly before we went into administration with amateurish atrocities performed by people who I would imagine describe themselves as “semi-professional musicians”.

Now, in the silence, I listen to customers moan that they can’t find anything they want to buy or that everything’s overpriced, while in the same breath saying how sad they are that we’re closing down....

Here’s the full piece:

Petition to remove Green's knighthood hits 50,000 signatures

A petition calling for the removal of Sir Philip Green’s knighthood is gaining support fast.

More than 50,000 people have now signed up, almost all today, with around 450 people joining each minute.

The petition, hosted by the 38 Degrees campaign site, calls on the Honours Committee to act unless Green returns all the money he made from BHS.

Online petition calling for Sir Philip Green to lose his knighthood

Spokesman Luke Ilott of 38 Degrees says:

“Philip Green got rich at the expense of thousands of people working on the shop floor - but now thousands of BHS staff have had their pension pot wiped out and face an uncertain future.

“When Britain decorates people like Philip Green with awards and honours, it says to the world that they’re someone worthy of respect. This petition shows that thousands of people think raiding thousands of pension pots is not worthy of a knighthood. It’s time the government listened.”

Reminder: the MPs who investigated the BHS collapse found “little to support the reputation for retail business acumen for which he received his knighthood”....

Lord Kerslake, who chaired the Honours Forfeiture Committee when it stripped banker Fred Goodwin of his knighthood in 2012, has said Sir Philip’s Green honour is now at risk.

Asked about the situation on BBC Radio 4’s World At One, he said (via PA):

“My personal view is that there is a case to be answered here.

“I wouldn’t prejudge the outcome of the process, but I think there is enough on the record now about what has happened in the case of BHS to justify the issue being examined.”

Green 'odds-on' to lose knighthood

A disgraced business chief and his knighthood are soon parted, as we saw with Sir Fred Goodwin after the banking crisis.

And Paddy Power, the bookmaker, reckon Sir Philip Green is odds-on to lose his honour within 18 months, following the criticism in today’s report.

They also see little chance that the Arcadia chief will put his hand into his pocket to fully cover the pension black hole.

Here’s their latest odds:

  • 4/6 To have his knighthood revoked by end of 2017
  • 8/1 To buy a new yacht for over £100m in 2017
  • 12/1 To sell his yacht, Lionheart, by the end of 2017
  • 12/1 To cover BHS’ £571million pensions black hole by paying personal funds to PPF by end of 2017
  • 66/1 To be bankrupt by end of 2017

Updated

Sir Philip Green isn’t entirely without support today....

The Institute of Directors has singled out Arcadia’s board for particular criticism, for failing to keep Philip Green in hand.

Oliver Parry, Head of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors, said:

Green’s swashbuckling spirit may have helped him build a large retail empire but, once he reached the top, he does not seem to have taken to heart what responsibility for this number of staff, and pensioners, means.

“This made the failure of his board, and the Chairman, Lord Grabiner, all the more disappointing. Non-executive directors are there to rein in the excesses of executives and protect the company’s long-term sustainability, including its reputation. In this light, the board’s lack of oversight of the sale of BHS to Dominic Chappel is staggering.

Grabiner is an experienced barrister and a senior City figure. But today’s report is unsparing, saying he was “complacent”, and had failed to provide the independent challenge and oversight needed.

Lord Grabiner, chair of the Green’s Taveta Investments, giving evidence to MPs in May.
Lord Grabiner, chair of the Green’s Taveta Investments, giving evidence to MPs in May. Photograph: PA

This slump in UK business confidence is the second piece of worrying economy news since the EU referendum.

Last Friday, data firm Markit reported that businesses were suffering falling output and orders, suggesting the economy is shrinking at the fastest rate since 2009.

Danielle Haralambous of the Economist Intelligence Unit has mapped both surveys onto one graph; it’s pretty worrying:

The TUC is alarmed by this morning’s slump in business confidence (details here).

General Secretary Frances O’Grady says the government needs to take action now, to protect workers from the impact of June’s referendum:

“The TUC has published an action plan to secure jobs and investment. The government must give the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow, bring forward major new infrastructure projects like high-speed rail and announce a big expansion in housebuilding.”

It’s official.... US telecoms group Verizon has snapped up Yahoo’s internet business for just $4.8bn.

It’s the end of a 21-year saga, which once saw Yahoo valued at more than $125bn in 2000 (just before the dot-com bubble spectacularly imploded).

CEO Marissa Mayer says he’s planning to say at the company. Her four-year tenure at Yahoo can’t really be described as a success, although turning the one-time Web pioneer around was always a massive task.

Labour MP Jon Trickett argues that the BHS scandal goes well beyond Sir Philip Green. (but agrees that he should lose his gong).

“The Select Committee’s damning report shows how Phillip Green extracted millions from BHS over 15 years and then sold it to a bankruptee who went on to receive further millions from the company.

“But a range of well-known accountancy, banking and other companies who had a duty to provide professional independent advice failed to prevent the actions described in the report.

“This left 11,000 loyal hard-working people without a job and a massive pension deficit. No one should be allowed to keep a knighthood after such actions. He must also pay back the millions of pounds to the pension fund.

Trickett is pushing for an “immediate and thorough review” of corporate governance, including professional advisors.

Today’s report found that advisers were paraded as an “expensive badge of legitimacy” for Dominic Chappell’s RAL group, which wouldn’t otherwise have passed muster.

Updated

Here’s the full quote from Labour’s Owen Smith:

“These reports expose the level of incompetence and corporate irresponsibility at the heart of BHS’s leadership.

“Sir Philip Green’s greed has costs thousands of people their jobs and put tens of thousands of people’s pensions at risk. Despite this, Sir Philip has shown no contrition for the damage he has done or the suffering he has caused.

“The Tories should take immediate action to hold Sir Philip Green to account, starting with stripping him of his knighthood and making sure he makes a proper contributions to cover the blackhole in the current pension fund.”

The BHS scandal rumbles on, with Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith joining the chorus calling for Sir Philip Green to lose that knighthood:

Updated

New orders expectations hit four-year low

The CBI also found that manufacturers are pretty gloomy about prospects over the next few months.

New orders expectations are at their lowest in over four years, and more firms expect to cut staff in the next quarter than hire more.

Here’s the details:

  • Total new orders are expected to be flat (0%), the lowest balance since January 2012 (-2%). Domestic orders are also anticipated to be broadly flat (+1%)
  • A balance of +10% expect export orders to rise (21% expect an increase, and 11% a fall)
  • 19% of businesses anticipate a rise in output volumes, and 12% a fall, giving a rounded balance of +6%
  • 14% expect employment to increase, and 20% expect it to decline, giving a balance of -6%

More here: Manufacturing prospects muted after Brexit – CBI

Here’s some instant reaction to the tumble in UK business confidence:

UK manufacturing optimism tumbles after Brexit

An employee works beneath an aluminium tank at TASCA Tankers Ltd. in Wakefield, UK.
An employee works beneath an aluminium tank at TASCA Tankers Ltd. in Wakefield, UK. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Breaking away from BHS.... a new survey has shown that confidence among UK manufacturers has slumped sharply to a six-year low.

The CBIs monthly industrial trends survey found that just 5% of firms are more optimistic about the general business situation than three months ago, but 52% are less optimistic.

That gives a balance of -47% -- the lowest figure since January 2009 (the depths of the financial crisis)

Firms also reported that export orders have fallen this month, despite the weaker pound.

The CBI says:

Total order books were broadly the same as in June (-4%, from -2% in June) but export order books deteriorated (-22%, from -14% in June).

Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist, blamed uncertainty following last month’s referendum:

It’s clear that a cloud of uncertainty is hovering over industry, post-Brexit. We see this in weak expectations for new orders, a sharp fall in optimism and a scaling back of investment plans.

“So, it’s important now for the new Government to steady the ship with a plan, and a clear timetable, for negotiating the UK’s relationship with the EU. This, along with a renewed focus on industrial strategy, will help give firms the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.

BHS’s stores are a pretty depressing place right now, as hopes of a rescue deal continue to fade.

These photos from the Wood Green store shows how administrators are cracking on with the closing down process; even putting mannequins up for sale:

BHS branch in Wood Green, North London. BHS stores prepare to close more than 30 stores with hundreds of staff redundancies under threatened as the British retailer fails to find a new buyer BHS Store closures, London, UK - 24 Jul 2016
BHS Store closures, London, UK - 24 Jul 2016Mandatory Credit: Photo by Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock (5781194q) Shop fittings for sale in BHS branch in Wood Green, North London. BHS stores prepare to close more than 30 stores with hundreds of staff redundancies under threatened as the British retailer fails to find a new buyer BHS Store closures, London, UK - 24 Jul 2016
BHS Store closures, London, UK - 24 Jul 2016Mandatory Credit: Photo by Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock (5781194g) Display sign in BHS branch in Wood Green, North London. BHS stores prepare to close more than 30 stores with hundreds of staff redundancies under threatened as the British retailer fails to find a new buyer BHS Store closures, London, UK - 24 Jul 2016

Tim Farron: Green must lose his knighthood

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has called on the Cabinet Office to speed up its review into whether Sir Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood.

He argues that Green simply doesn’t deserve to be honoured:

“Philip Green has exploited his way into filling his own pockets. It is clear that he tore off pieces of BHS to fund his lavish lifestyle at the expense of the business and those people who had put their lives into making the company a success.

“11,000 people are now significantly worse off because of one man’s greed.

“It cannot be acceptable for him to be sailing around in a £100m super-yacht while the workers he failed are left at the door to the job centre. It’s time HMRC stepped in to ensure he pays the financial contribution he owes to BHS pensioners.

“Knighthoods should be saved for the brave and the brilliant. Philip Green has proved that he is neither of those and should be stripped of his title.”

Updated

John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, has urged the government to begin the process of removing Sir Philip Green’s knighthood.

He argues that prime minister Theresa May must deliver on her pledges to make Britain a fairer country:

“In her first speech as Prime Minister Theresa May stated that her Government would be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. She must now clearly show that was not just a soundbite by holding Philip Green to account for his actions and announcing the removal of his knighthood.”

“He left a company in dire circumstances and a pension scheme with a massive deficit of over £400 million. A very privileged few benefitted from BHS and due to their actions thousands will now be worse off through no fault of their own.”

“Theresa May must now order the Cabinet Office and the Honours Committee to investigate Philip Green and strip him of his knighthood. The parliamentary report makes clear he is not fit to be a knight of the realm.”

One of the many pieces of evidence uncovered by MPs is a handwritten note, outlining BHS’s balance sheet before the sale to Dominic Chappell.

Signed by Chappell and Green, it shows that the company would have £94.16m of working capital - just above the minimum needed – but also faced looming VAT and national insurance (NI) demands:

No wonder the Daily Mail dubs it “a real back of an envelope deal”.

My colleague Graham Ruddick reckons Green’s knighthood is on the line:

Today’s report finds that Philip Green “repeatedly resisted” requests from the BHS pension trustees to put more money into the fund, to prevent it sliding into a deficit.

It says:

Such contributions were not charitable donations: they were the means of the employer meeting its obligations for deferred pay. Sir Philip had a responsibility to be aware of the growth of the deficit and he was aware of it.

That there is a massive deficit is ultimately his responsibility.

BHS isn’t the only UK company facing a pensions black hole, unfortunately.

Many other schemes are also in deficit, partly due to the massive rally in government bonds since the financial crisis (which drives down the interest rate you get from them).

Tom McPhail, head of retirement policy at financial services Hargreaves Lansdown, says today’s report highlights a wider problem:

The report exposes the tensions between shareholder and pension scheme member interests, and poses some important questions about how we manage these tensions for the thousands of other schemes which continue to operate under the shadow of substantial deficits.

The immediate future holds some significant threats. The possibility of an economic slowdown and increasing inflation could exacerbate an already unsustainable mismatch between the promises made to some scheme members and the ability of sponsoring employers ever to pay for those promises.

There is an urgent need to take a step back and look at how best to meet the competing demands of all the parties involved. This should be an urgent priority for the new Pensions Minister.

Updated

Government: We need to reform capitalism

The government has admitted that more needs to be done to avoid a repeat of the collapse of BHS.

A spokesman says:

“This case shows why the Government is determined to tackle corporate irresponsibility and reform capitalism so it works for everyone - not just the privileged few.

“Today’s report is very concerning, and the Insolvency Service is now carrying out an accelerated investigation. Job centres are also standing by to provide support and advice to those who were affected. But in the long run we need to do more to prevent this kind of irresponsible and reckless behaviour.”

Philip Green is likely to choke on his cornflakes over some of today’s front-page headlines, says retail analyst Nick Bubb:

“The Shaming of Sir Shifty” trumpets the Daily Mail, “Sir Philip Green slammed in BHS Report” says CityAM (with a nice photo of a shifty-looking Philip Green), “Green’s reign at BJHS torn apart by MPs” in the Guardian and “Green must pay for BHS plunder” says the Telegraph, whilst the Committee’s assertion that Philip Green is “the unacceptable face of capitalism” is widely repeated.

The FT, however, takes a different tack, with the headline “MPs blame Goldman for lending credibility to doomed BHS deal”.

The Times highlights that a number of business leaders have criticised Philip Green and, in terms of editorial comment, there are plenty of suggestions that Philip Green should lose his knighthood if he doesn’t make good the BHS pension deficit, eg in the Daily Mail, although there is a thoughtful Business editorial in the Times noting that everybody knew about the good and the bad side of Philip Green back in 2006 when he got his knighthood and that it would be wrong to re-write history.

Frank Field agrees that many other people and organisations are also to blame for the demise of BHS.

That includes Grant Thornton, Olswang and Goldman Sachs, who were all involved in the fateful sale of BHS to Dominic Chappell in 2015.

It also includes City grandee Lord Grabiner who chaired Green’s Arcadia Group.

They are also in the dock over the BHS scandal - but ‘not the same dock’ as Green - for taking the billionaire’s shilling and not speaking out, says Field.

The work and pensions committee chair then reiterates his comparison with Robert Maxwell, arguing that:

Unlike Maxwell, who was bankrupt when he threw himself off his boat [in 1991], this person [Green] has wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and he should act.

Updated

Field: Green is worse than Robert Maxwell

Sir Philip Green is “worse than Robert Maxwell” over his handling of the BHS pension black hole, Frank Field MP claims on the Today Programme.

Q: What must Green do to sort BHS out?

He keeps saying he’s going to sort it out.

He needs to get his chequebook out and write a cheque to cover the huge pensions deficit.

Field then argues that Green is more culpable than Robert Maxwell, who famously plundered the pensions of his Mirror Group.

Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell Photograph: Rex Features/REX FEATURES

Field argues that Green is worse than Maxwell, because he could actually fix the pension deficit.

Maxwell, I’ve always thought, meant to pay the money back. He was just going all over the place, borrowing money to keep his companies going. When the music stopped, he had no money.

Now, the music has stopped [at BHS], and there’s someone there who’s managed to catapult themselves towards the top of the Sunday Times Rich List.

This person has huge amounts of money, unlike Robert Maxwell.

If he wishes now to make good that pension deficit to those 22,000 pensioners, he could do it. But he keeps talking about it, but not doing it.

Q: So he needs to write a cheque for £571m?

At least that much, Field replies. The pension deficit is still growing... so Green needs to ensure that no-one is worse off.

UPDATE: Lawyers for Green later issued a letter disputing Field’s statements, saying they were “highly defamatory and completely false. Our client has never stolen any money from BHS, Arcadia or the pension funds.”

Updated

Frank Field: Green acts like Napoleon

Napoleon I, Emperor of France, in exile.

Frank Field, chair of the Work and Pensions committee, is laying into Philip Green’s conduct on that Today Programme.

Q: How much of this is really down to Philip Green? He took his last dividend in 2004, and BHS was still profitable in 2008

He borrowed billions against BHS and Arcadia, and a large part of that money went through his companies up to Lady Green.

He has a huge responsibility here.

Field questions Green’s claim that he’d never have sold the company to Dominic Chappell if Goldman Sachs hadn’t vetted him.

This was a group of companies that were run by somebody who behaves like Napoleon, who has a collection of people around him who do what he wants. There is no corporate governance, as there would be in a public company.

Updated

The Financial Times is struck by the criticism of Goldman Sachs in today’s report, for helping Green to sell BHS to Dominic Chappell last year:

The FT says:

Goldman Sachs has been blamed by MPs for lending a “lustre” of credibility to a doomed deal to rescue BHS, the retailer formerly owned by Sir Philip Green which subsequently collapsed with the loss of 11,000 jobs in one of Britain’s biggest corporate failures.

The MPs said the bank had been currying favour with its billionaire client by helping Sir Philip pull off the “otherwise questionable” sale, which it branded the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.

The MPs are also unimpressed that Goldman said they only offered ‘preliminary observations’, while they were actually quite closely involved in the deal.

“We regret that Goldman Sachs underplayed to us the nature and extent of their role.

Over in the City, shares in William Hill have surged by 11% after rival bookmaker 888 made a preliminary takeover approach.

Union: This is a damning report

Dave Gill, national officer at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) trade union, has discussed the report on Radio 4’s Today Programme.

Q: This report must make the grimmest of grim reading for BHS’s workers?

It’s a damning report. The consequences of the actions of a handful of people running BHS is now being felt by 11,000 hard working, dedicated and loyal staff.

Q: Is there any progress in finding a buyer for BHS?

It’s still ongoing. 20 stores closed last Saturday, and 30 are due to close next Saturday.

We’re in constant contact with the administrators, and they are still looking for buyers for another 120 stores.

Q: Could the mistakes made at BHS be occurring at other UK companies?

I hope not, not to the level at BHS. But I hope the government will take this report on board and learn from it.

Q: Is it an acceptable quid pro quo if Green comes up with the money to fix the pension black hole and thus keeps his knighthood?

Whether he keeps his knighthood or not isn’t relevant from our point of view....

The issue for people who work at BHS now is the pension deficit, and their employment.

Updated

The BHS scandal has tarnished the reputation of British business, according to Iain Wright, chair of the BIS committee (which co-produced the report).

Writing in the Daily Mirror, Wright calls for a shake-up of ethics and accountability to avoid a repeat.

Here’s a flavour:

Just a few weeks on from his rude, unprofessional and bad-tempered appearance at our inquiry, Sir Philip has been pictured on board his multi-million pound superyacht.

Back in Britain, the demise of BHS has left a trail of destruction of job losses, squeezed pensions and uncertain futures for companies reliant on the once great retailer’s supply chain.

Sir Philip spent years at the helm of BHS slashing costs and selling assets, while sending handsome dividends offshore and failing to invest sufficiently in the company.

He was then able to dump like rubbish the business - and with it his responsibilities to workers and pensioners – to the twice-bankrupt chancer Dominic Chappell who had no experience of retail.

What the papers say....

The BHS report is the lead story on many of Britain’s newspapers today:

Houses of Parliament

You can read the full parliamentary report into the failure of BHS here:

Leadership failures and personal greed led to collapse of BHS

Here’s a flavour of its damning verdict:

The report documents the systematic plunder of BHS at the cost of the 11,000 jobs and 20,000 people’s pensions now at risk. Sir Philip Green, Dominic Chappell and the respective directors, advisers and hangers-on who all got rich or richer are all culpable, with the only losers the ordinary employees and pensioners.

The Committees say this is “the unacceptable face of capitalism” and that the story of BHS begs much wider questions about the gaps in company law and pension regulation that must be addressed. The two Committees will now turn to those question in new inquiries.

And turning to the Green family*, the MPs say:

The headline figures that Sir Philip bought BHS for £200 million and sold it 14 years later for £1 cannot disguise the true picture. He did not invest in the company and then unfortunately fail to make it succeed. Sir Philip systematically extracted hundreds of millions of pounds from BHS, paying very little tax and fantastically enriching himself and his family, leaving the company and its pension fund weakened to the point of the inevitable collapse of both. Lady Tina Green is still being paid tens of millions of pounds of tax free repayments on the loan that was engineered to sell BHS from one Green family business to another, and will be for some years to come.

* - Lady Tina, Philip’s wife, is the Monaco-based owner of the Green’s Arcadia chain.

Updated

John Mann: Green must lose knighthood and cover pensions blackhole

Labour MP John Mann is leading the calls for Green to lose his knighthood:

Another former Labour MP, Chris Mullin, credits the work and pension committee chair Frank Field:

The agenda: Green savaged by MPs over BHS

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

The big news this morning is that Sir Philip Green has been eviscerated by MPs over his handling of the BHS retail chain, which collapsed earlier this year.

A no-holds-barred report into BHS found that the Green family had systematically taken money out of the chain during their ownership, weakening it and leading to its eventual collapse.

Green himself was dubbed the “unacceptable face of capitalism” -- harking back to Ted Heath’s damning verdict on Tiny Rowland in the 1970s -- with little proof that he deserved his knighthood for retail business acumen.

He has been urged to act now to patch up BHS’s pension deficit, estimated at £571m, or risk being humiliatingly stripped of that gong.

Frank Field, the chair of the work and pensions committee, summed up the report:

“[Green’s] reputation as the king of retail lies in the ruins of BHS. His family took out of BHS and Arcadia a fortune beyond the dreams of avarice and he’s still to make good his boast of ‘fixing’ the pension fund.

What kind of man is it who can count his fortune in billions but does not know what decent behaviour is?”

The work and pensions select committee and the business, innovation and skills (BIS) were also unsparing in their verdict of Dominic Chappell, who bought the chain from Green a year before it folded. He had his ‘hands in the till’, they say.

And they also criticise the City firms who helped engineer that takeover, including Goldman Sachs.

The only group who avoided criticism are BHS’s 11,000 staff, and its pensioners, who are now facing uncertainty and financial pain.

Here’s the full story:

Also coming up today.....

Global investors will be digesting last weekend’s G20 meeting, where finance ministers and central bankers warned that growth is still too weak:

G20 will use ‘all policy tools’ to lift growth as Brexit weighs

The UK’s CBI group publishes its monthly survey of business confidence and industrial trends at 11am. That may show signs of weakness following the June EU referendum.

Budget airline Ryanair is reporting results this morning, and warning that the Brexit vote and recent terror attacks are threatening demand and profitability (more on this shortly).

And one-time Internet goliath Yahoo could be taken over by telecoms group Verizon today for around $4.8bn.

Yahoo Cuts $4.8 Billion Deal to Sell Core Business to Verizon

Updated

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