Al Mana Group, based in Doha, Qatar, has bought BHS’s 70 overseas stores as administrator Duff & Phelps continues negotiations on the future of 164 UK outlets.
Up to 11,000 jobs remain at risk in the UK, and while all stores continue to trade, they are running closing down sales while administrators continue to negotiate with potential buyers.
The deal with Al Mana is likely to benefit up to 150 workers in the UK linked to website operations, and potentially for creditors owed more than £1bn (€1.2bn) when BHS went into administration. Unsecured creditors were told that they were likely to get less than 3p for every £1 (€0.04 for every €1.2) owed.
It is unclear how much Al Mana, which runs stores for Harvey Nichols, Zara and Mango in the Middle East, paid for BHS’s overseas assets.
The biggest creditor remains the state-owned Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which is lined up to take on the £571m (€682.6m) deficit in BHS’s pension fund unless a rescue deal can be secured. The group’s former owner Sir Philip Green, who sold BHS for £1 (€1.2) in March 2015 to a consortium led by Dominic Chappell, who had previously been declared bankrupt, is in the process of trying to reach an agreement to keep BHS’s pension scheme out of the pensions lifeboat.
Last week, the PPF backed the appointment of a second administrator, FRP Advisory, to assist with investigations into the behaviour of former BHS directors.
