Philip Green's Arcadia profit lifted by Topshop rise and BHS sale

British retail tycoon Philip Green’s Arcadia yesterday reported a 5% rise in annual profit, helped by expansion of its Topshop chain and the sale of the loss-making BHS chain.

The group, which also owns the Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Evans, and Burton brands, made an operating profit before goodwill and exceptional items of £251.6m (€357.7m) in the year to the end of August, up from £238.4m in the previous year.

The results are for continuing operations only and, so, benefit from the absence of the heavily loss-making BHS chain which Green offloaded to Retail Acquisitions in March.

Arcadia’s total sales were broadly flat at £2.07bn, with sales at UK stores open over a year down 0.9%.

Green, who has twice tried and failed to buy Marks & Spencer, called it “a robust performance in challenging times”.

Arcadia ended the year with cash deposits of £229.1m. However, for the 10th successive year, Green did not pay a dividend.

In 2005, he took on additional debt and paid his Monaco-resident wife Christina, the ultimate owner of Arcadia, a £1.2bn dividend.

Topshop/Topman opened five wholly owned new stores in the US in the 2014-15 year.

Some 34 new overseas franchise outlets for Topshop/Topman were also opened and 45 across the group’s other brands.