An extra layer of intrigue is seemingly added to the BHS scandal every day. It has now emerged that Robin Saunders, the top City banker who helped to finance Sir Philip Green’s takeover of BHS in 2000, advised Paul Sutton on his bid to buy the department store retailer.
Sutton is the convicted fraudster who was in talks to buy BHS until a whistleblower alerted Green to his background. Sutton then passed on the deal to Dominic Chappell, whose consortium Retail Acquisitions bought BHS for £1 in March 2015.
This revelation comes only a few days after it emerged that the Allied Commercial Exporters (ACE), which is controlled by Guy and Alexander Dellal, provided Chappell with £35m to demonstrate his credibility to Green’s retail business Arcadia. The Dellals are the son and grandson of property investor “Black Jack” Dellal, who helped to finance Green’s takeover of retail group Sears in 1998.
All the characters in the sorry tale of BHS’s collapse increasingly appear to be part of an entangled web. A parliamentary select committee next week may shed some light on the precise nature of the relationships, no doubt with a particular focus on Green.
Sources close to Green insist he did not know that Saunders had advised Sutton or that the Dellals had provided Chappell with the £35m, only learning of their backing when ACE approached BHS about buying its headquarters in Marylebone, north London.
Saunders should now also be called to appear in front of MPs to explain why she was working with Sutton, a fraudster. The Dellals have already been asked to appear, with MPs keen to understand their connection to Chappell.
The role of Saunders and the Dellals is key to getting to the bottom of how Chappell ended up buying BHS. Were they involved in proposals to buy BHS because they believed it was a credible business proposition? Or were they doing a favour for a friend?
As the investigation continues into how BHS ended up calling in administrators in April, the prospect of a rescue deal for the company draws closer. We can only hope that the most likely buyer, a Portuguese-backed consortium led by Greg Tufnell, the brother of former England cricketer Phil, provides BHS with a fresh start.
