£100m boost for new Arcadia owner
TOP Shop-to-Burton owner Arcadia, which last week agreed to a £770m takeover by tycoon Philip Green, will this week announce that it has doubled its annual profits to £100m. The results, which will include a dividend of 4p a share, will be sent to shareholders with the formal notice of Green's purchase.
Arcadia's performance for the 53 weeks to the end of August compares with £53.3m the year before, and it underlines the strong recovery achieved under its chief executive, Stuart Rose. He will pocket £27m from the takeover and should land another top job in retailing.
Green had planned to sell Arcadia's Top Shop, Top Man and the Miss Selfridge fashion stores, which rely on management buying skills, but the billionaire Bhs owner will now keep them. 'I am not open to offers for them,' he said.
Green also pledged to keep his empire private. He insisted: 'I can raise £800m from the bank, so why do I need to take Arcadia public?'
Managers of Top Shop and Burton shops will pocket £100,000 each from the takeover, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The paper said 700 senior Arcadia staff, including a handful of senior store managers, will share a £60m windfall.
