Icelandic investor Baugur is considering whether it could relocate to the UK after the conviction for bookkeeping offences of executive chairman Jón sgeir Jóhannesson.

Lawyers for Baugur – which owns a swathe of the UK high street retailers including House of Fraser, Hamleys and Iceland – are investigating the possibility of moving to the UK to avoid any chance of Jóhannesson being banned as a company director.

It follows a six-year legal battle in which the Supreme Court in Reykjavik threw out the most serious fraud and embezzlement charges made against Jóhannesson.

“Which of our companies here in Iceland will be moved either to the UK, Denmark or the Faroe Islands remains to be seen,” Johannesson told the Morgunbladid newspaper. “We are deeply looking into it now.”

Meanwhile, Baugur has sold its catering supplier Woodward Foodservice to rival Brakes. It is understood that it received in the region of£20 million for the loss-making business.

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