Top City advisers to be grilled by MPs in wake of BHS collapse
A string of top City advisers are set for a grilling over the BHS fiasco after being called to give evidence in front of MPs.
The business, innovation and skills committee is currently running an inquiry into the sale and acquisition of BHS, which kicked off last week with a joint hearing alongside the work and pensions committee with evidence from the Pensions Regulator and Pension Protection Fund.
The work and pensions committee is running its own inquiry into the pensions aspects surrounding the BHS administration.
Advisers from Goldman Sachs, Linklaters, Nabarro, PwC and Deloitte are all reported by the Sunday Times to have been asked to tell the business committee their side of the story of the collapse of the high street retailer.
The inquiry, which launched last month, is examining various matters, including whether Arcadia Group did what was necessary to ensure that Retail Acquisitions would be a responsible owner of BHS when it sold the retailer for £1 last year and, likewise, whether Retail Acquisitions did everything it should have done to make sure BHS could be run as a going concern.
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Both Sir Philip Green and Retail Acquisitions' Dominic Chappell have been called to give evidence to the MPs.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the particular issue of the inquiry but reiterated that it "had no formal role on the sale of BHS to Retail Acquisitions and was not engaged or remunerated in relation to it."
Linklaters, Nabarro and Deloitte had not yet responded to CityAM's request for comment at time of publication, while PwC declined to comment.
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Meanwhile, two other sets of advisers were brought into the spotlight over the collapse, after the Mail on Sunday reported law firm Olswang and accountancy giant Grant Thornton were paid £3.7m and £4.4m respectively for 13 months work for Retail Acquisitions.
It is also thought that BHS' administrator Duff & Phelps will be announcing a new owner for the retailer next week, possibly as early as Wednesday. Last week, there had been five expressions of interest to purchase BHS as a whole, and more still to purchased parts of the business.
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Grant Thornton declined to comment further on the fee, remarking "as a large professional services firm, whose work is carried out in accordance with rigorous professional, regulatory and ethical standards, we are bound by strict rules of client confidentiality".
Olswang had not yet responded to CityAM's request for comment at time of publication.