Green ‘sale’ talks denied

BILLIONAIRE Sir Philip Green yesterday denied being in talks about selling his Arcadia empire to a Chinese textiles giant.

A statement from Arcadia said neither the tycoon nor any of their directors had been in contact with Shandong Ruyi.

The denial followed a report in the Sunday Times that Green was planning to sell all or part of Arcadia, who own Topshop, Topman, Burton and other high street chains.

The firm also called claims that he had been discussing separating Topshop from Arcadia with bankers from HSBC “totally untrue”.

It comes amid speculation that Arcadia are struggling because of cut-throat competition.

Green’s reputation was shattered by the sale and subsequent collapse of BHS.

Labour MP Frank Field, a long-term critic of Green, had earlier written to the tycoon over an estimated £1billion black hole in Arcadia’s pension scheme.

The chairman of the work and pensions committee called on him to voluntarily contact regulators if a sale were on the cards. Tycoon Philip Green OVER-50S travel firm and insurers Saga have hired a new £325,000-a-year chairman, two months after a profit warning.

Patrick O’Sullivan, who has spent his career in finance, will take over the helm on May 1. His bumper £27,000-a-month fee is on top of the £380,000 a year he gets for chairing finance firm Old Mutual.

In December, Saga suffered the worst one-day fall since their 2014 stock market flotation following the collapse of airline Monarch. It cost Saga £2million as they rushed to find customers new flights.