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Workers who were saving pensions at Sir Phillip Green’s Arcadia Group have reportedly been told that their savings can be recovered following the sale of property assets at the collapsed company.
According to The Guardian, trustees of the Arcadia pension scheme have secured £173m to help fund their retirement through the selling of assets since the group failed – with the proceeds understood to be from Asos’s purchase of Topshop and other property offloads.
It is believed that the trustee scheme will remain separate from the pension lifeboat, which protects workers with a defined benefit pension when an employer becomes insolvent, but at a reduced level.
Last November, Arcadia fell into administration placing over 12,000 jobs at risk. Since its collapse the majority of its brands have been sold to other retail chains – the most widely reported being; Boohoo’s £25.2m purchase of Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis – and Asos’s £300m deal on Topshop Topman and Miss Selfridge.
Reports suggest that Arcadia pension scheme was given security over £210m of assets including the sale of Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford street.
The pension holders are expected to earn more from the scheme, however it is said that the amount raised will not be enough to cover the expected £300m deficit, which is still being calculated by the trustees.
