LONDON - BRITISH businessman Philip Green, whose business group owns retail chains BHS and Topshop, is looking to invest two billion pounds (S$5.04 billion) to save Icelandic retail group Baugur, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Mr Green told the business daily that he was in talks with Baugur's chairman Jon Asgeir Johannesson and chief executive Gunnar Sigurdsson to acquire all of the debt held by Baugur in recently-nationalised Icelandic banks, estimated at around one to two billion pounds.

'All the assets have been frozen,' Mr Green told the FT.

'I don't want any of these businesses to fall over, nor does Jon, nor does Gunnar.'

Baugur's brands in Britain include the House of Fraser department store and toy retailer Hamleys.

According to the FT, Mr Green arrived in Reykjavik on Friday morning to hold the discussions with Mr Johannesson and Mr Sigurdsson, and while the latter pair have said that Baugur is not up for sale, Mr Green's investment in the group would put him in a strong position for a future acquisition.

Mr Green will be able to fund the acquisition using a large portion of cash, the FT said, because he took a 1.2-billion-pound dividend from BHS in 2005. -- AFP