Retail Acquisitions Ltd paid previous owner Sir Philip Green £1 to buy BHS in 2015. The high street retailer went into administration just over a year later, at which point Retail Acquisitions Ltd owed around £6m to BHS.

On Wednesday the high court heard insolvency proceedings for Retail Acquisitions Ltd and the judge ruled it should be put into liquidation. The judgment has been temporarily stayed and is expected to be formally handed down in the next few days.

Duff & Phelps, who are administrators to BHS, said: ‘Duff & Phelps, acting on behalf of BHS Group Ltd, is satisfied that Retail Acquisitions Ltd has been put into liquidation. The process of realising the assets of Retail Acquisitions Ltd can now commence to the benefit of all the creditors of the BHS companies.’

The insolvency will give administrators complete financial records of Retail Acquisitions Ltd giving clarity on where funds taken from BHS were moved on to with a view to potentially recovering them for shareholders.

Chappell said he was ‘disappointed’ by the outcome of the hearing which placed Retail Acquisitions Ltd into liquidation.

‘The order has been stayed by the court until its written reasons are provided so that Retail Acquisitions Ltd has an opportunity to properly consider an appeal.

‘It will look forward to those written reasons and will then be able to take advice and decide next steps, to include an appeal,’ he said.

The collapse of BHS resulted in the loss of 11,000 jobs and left a £571m pension deficit. In their subsequent report on BHS, the work and pensions and business, innovations and skills committees described Chappell as a ‘wholly unsuitable chancer’ who ‘effectively had his hands in the till’.