Hello, I'm Evan Davis and thank you for downloading this programme. In this edition of the

bottom line, we're talking profit or plunder. When is it right to take assets out of a business

and when is it illegitimate? Hello and welcome to the programme. Things go wrong at the best

of times mistakes are made. Luck turns bad.

That's just life.

But in business, things can also potentially go wrong,

not because of bad luck,

but because someone makes money out of them going wrong.

And it's that category we're looking at today.

We're asking how and when making a profit from running a business

becomes simple plundering of that business's assets.

That profit or plunder question has been inspired by events at BHS. The facts are well known.

It was struggling, facing intense competition in a tough retail environment, which is bad luck, you might say.

But the owner took quite a bit of money out of the company,

and at the same time the staff pension fund went into deficit.

Sir Philip Green, who was then in charge,

offloaded the business to an inexperienced former bankrupt

who didn't make it work.

It's collapsed, becoming another high street casualty.

The pension fund has fallen into the hands of the government's protection

fund, which is supported by thousands of other pension funds and by extension everyone who pays

into them. Sir Philip, meanwhile, is taking delivery of a 90 metre long yacht. Now, the example

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