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When you’re an Icelander cast adrift in the turbulent North Atlantic, you grab whichever lifebelt is chucked your way before you freeze to death within seconds.  That’s the advice one would give to the beleaguered Jon Asgeir Johannesson of Baugur, which is thought to have between one and two billion pounds of debt held by the Icelandic banks that collapsed last week.

Anything to do with Iceland has a very grubby image these days, a situation that may well take many years to change. So the news that Sir Philip Green, the owner of BHS, was willing to jump into his Gulfstream last Friday and hot-foot it up to Reykavik with his cheque-book in hand must have been heartening for Johannesson. Though if Green’s people have been sweating over the books, Johannesson shouldn’t expect an easy deal. 

'If you're on your way home and you go past a house with a sign outside saying 'half price', you're going to knock on the door, aren't you?' said Sir Philip chirpily yesterday from his place back in Monaco. There’s nothing Sir Phil likes more than to watch the tide go out and see who’s actually got their trunks on.

If he’s successful, Green could find himself the head of a vastly-expanded High Street empire, with hugely discounted stakes in House of Fraser, Mappin & Webb, Oasis, Warehouse and Whistles. There’s even a chunk of the hapless French Connection in there. 'There's a buyer and there's a seller and that's how business has always been done. It's just that there's not many buyers now,' says the UK’s favourite retailer.

Sir Philip has played the last few years very skilfully. He took his £1.2 billion divi from BHS way back in 2005, and since then has been able to invest without having to get himself in dangerous hock to the banks. Cash-rich private buyers are going to be in very powerful positions in the next twelve months.

So don’t be surprised to see Sir Phil in charge at Hamley’s (another Baugur jewel) by Christmas. With that perma-tan and the tumbling chest hair, he’d look quite something in the Santa suit.  

In today's bulletin:
RBS humbled in massive state bail-out
Mission Impossible for Iceland?
Editor's blog: Green shoots of recovery for Baugur
MT's Little Ray of Sunshine: Herd mentality at DEFRA
Asian Jewels in the crown?