Sir Philip Green: What does he own and how much is his business empire worth?

Businessman's fortune has fallen by an estimated £800m in the last year as Topshop's sales slump

Sir Philip Green, who has been named as the businessman who obtained a gagging order preventing the press publishing details of sexual harassment allegations, has a fortune estimated at around £2bn, making him one of Britain’s richest people.

That’s despite a fall of almost £800m last year thanks to declining performance at his Arcadia retail empire, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Sir Philip "categorically and wholly denies the allegations" against him.

Born in Croydon, the son of a successful property developer and retailer, Sir Philip left school at 15 before setting up his first clothing business after a spell as a shoe importer.

He is now resident in the tax haven of Monaco with his wife Lady Tina Green, 68. Lady Green owns all of the shares in their company, Taveta, which is registered in Jersey and controls Arcadia.

Sir Philip has claimed he chose to live in the principality because of a “heart scare” he had twenty years ago.

Lady Green has pointed out other benefits to tax havens: “My understanding is that jurisdictions such as Jersey and the British Virgin Islands are commonly preferred for their strong regulatory regimes,” she wrote to MPs in 2016.

Arcadia

The Arcadia Group is the clothing empire that made Sir Philip’s reputation as a retail king and remains the source of much of his wealth. It boasts some of the biggest names on the high street: Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, Burton and - the jewel in the crown - Topshop, which has successfully expanded into the US in recent years.

But the rapid upward trajectory has recently reversed with the Arcadia’s value being slashed by half in just a year. Topshop’s revenues dropped 5.6 per cent last year, in spite of a jump in online sales.

Topshop lost £10.9m in the year to August 2017, compared with a £59.4m profit in the previous 12 months. It also has a worrying pension deficit of up to £1bn - not the first time one of Sir Philip’s companies have experienced problems in that regard.

BHS

The tycoon bought BHS for £200m in 2000 and took it back into private ownership. He rebranded it as British Home Stores and brought it under his Arcadia umbrella before ridding himself of it in 2015, by which time it had racked up £1.3bn in debt including a large pension deficit.

Until the recent sexual harassment allegations it was Sir Philip’s conduct during and after the disposal of BHS that had most tarnished reputation.

Pensions committee chair Sir Frank Field summed it up succinctly earlier this year: “Sir Philip Green stripped BHS bare and then left it for dead, with contemptuous disregard for the pensioners.”

The businessman sold BHS for £1 to a company controlled by a Dominic Chappell, a man who had been declared bankrupt three times and had no retail experience.

The chain collapsed into administration a year later, with 11,000 jobs lost and a £571m deficit in the pension scheme.

The Pensions Regulator found that the “main purpose” of the transaction was so that Sir Philip could avoid liability for the fund which contained 22,000 people’s retirement savings.

Sir Philip came under heavy and sustained fire from the regulator and MPs, before eventually making a voluntary payment of £363m to help make up the deficit.

Superyachts

Sir Philip owns three luxurious yachts including the 295ft Lionheart which he bought for £100m at about the same time as he took collection of a £46m Gulfstream private jet and offloaded BHS.

He was believed to be holidaying on the Lionheart in the Mediterranean when he stated in September 2016 that he was “working every day” to save the stricken retailer’s pension scheme.

The previous month he was filmed on the Greek Island of Ithaca attacking a reporter who tried to question him about BHS’ demise. “That’s going in the f***** sea,” Sir Philip shouted while pointing towards the reporter’s camera equipment.

The Pensions Regulator said at the time that the vessel could be seized in order to generate cash to pay into the BHS fund. In the end he kept both the yacht and his knighthood, though there will now be renewed calls for him to be stripped of the latter.