Philip Green's Arcadia profit up on Topshop expansion, BHS exit

British retail tycoon Philip Green's Arcadia reported a 5 percent rise in annual profit on Wednesday, helped by the international expansion of its Topshop chain and the sale of the loss-making BHS chain.

The group, which also owns the Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Burton brands, made an operating profit before goodwill and exceptional items of 251.6 million pounds ($379.7 million) in the year to August 29, up from 238.4 million pounds in the previous year.

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

Arcadia's total sales were broadly flat at 2.07 billion pounds, with sales at UK stores open over a year down 0.9 percent.

Billionaire Green, who has twice tried and failed to buy British clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer, called it "a robust performance in challenging times."

Arcadia ended the year with cash deposits of 229.1 million pounds.

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 1.2 billion pound dividend.

Topshop/Topman opened five wholly owned new stores in the United States in the 2014-15 year, taking the total to nine. Some 34 new overseas franchise outlets for Topshop/Topman were also opened and 45 across the group's other brands.

Arcadia currently trades from 2,358 UK stores, having closed 86 over the last year.

In the first 10 weeks of Arcadia's new financial year total VAT sales tax inclusive like-for-like sales were down 2.3 percent.