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NEW LOOK
LOOKS GOOD
The UK retailer
bucked the trend of
high street decline
with some stellar
revenue figures
THE UK’S second-largest women’s
clothing retailer said yesterday that
revenues rose 5.4 per cent to £1.49bn in
the year to the end of March, while pretax
profits rose 16.8 per cent to £59.1m.
Against a backdrop of high street angst
from rival retailers, like-for-like sales
rose 3.4 per cent, driven by a stonking
rise in online purchases: on its own
website, sales jumped 27.9 per cent,
while on third-party sites – such as
Asos – sales jumped 41.8 per cent.
Accountancy watchdog declines to probe
BHS collapse as investigation outside remit
HAYLEY KIRTON
@HayleyLEK
THE ACCOUNTANCY watchdog
yesterday declined to investigate
the BHS collapse as thoroughly as
one professional body has asked it
to, on the grounds that such a
probe would fall outside its remit.
Responding to a letter from
Simon Walker, director general of
the Institute of Directors, the
Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC)
chief executive Stephen Haddrill
stressed that his organisation has a
limit on what approaches it could
take in any eventual investigation
it may launch.
In particular, Haddrill pointed
out that the FRC only investigated
the work of accountants, auditors
and actuaries and, therefore, did
not hold any power over anybody
who was not a member of any
corresponding professional body.
Haddrill’s letter also noted that
the FRC’s corporate governance
code only extended to companies
with a premium list and therefore
it could not launch a probe into
BHS, a private company, on these
grounds.
It pointed out that the watchdog
had no powers of enforcement of
the Companies Act, adding that
this would be a job for
government.
Walker’s own letter noted that
he appreciated the FRC could not
be responsible for answering every
question swarming the retailer’s
collapse, but added that it did have
a crucial role to play.
The FRC has previously written
to Conservative MP for Bedford
and Kempston Richard Fuller,
responding to a similar request to
launch an investigation.