Pension Protection Fund calls for BHS liquidation to start within the month
BHS' biggest creditor, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), is pushing for the company to be placed into liquidation by the end of the month.
Sky News reports that the PPF has told the joint administrators of BHS that it wants to bring forward investigations into the former directors of the retailer, which would take place when the liquidation begins.
Read more: Sir Philip Green faces grilling when MPs debate BHS' collapse next Thursday
BHS fell into administration in April months after Sir Philip Green sold it to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1.
The PPF is now providing pensions for the BHS employees, but will only be paying 90 per cent of what the BHS pension scheme would have been able to provide.
Due to concerns about the independence of the the original administrators, Duff & Phelps, from Sir Philip Green, a second administrator, FRP Advisory, was appointed by the PPF.
City PM has learned that FRP Advisory will be taking over the liquidation process when it starts, and will be responsible for investigating the former directors of BHS from that point onwards.
Read more: FRP Advisory set to be appointed BHS liquidators – ousting Duff & Phelps
The pace of the investigations into the sale of BHS has also been criticised by Frank Field MP, chair of the work and pensions select committee, which looked into the collapse of the high street retailer.
Field told City PM that he hopes The Pensions Regulator will be able to provide the conclusions of its investigations to parliament imminently.
He said: "We've got a debate a week on Thursday and it would have been helpful for us to know what The Pensions Regulator's preliminary conclusions were and we're entering that [debate] without that – and that's a disappointment.
"The regulator said she hoped she would have a report before the end of the year, and I hope there is a growing demand that they do need to improve radically on that end of year deadline."