Baugur has denied comments by Alchemy Partners chief Jon Moulton that he was offered a number of the Icelandic investor’s UK retail companies in the aftermath of the collapse of Iceland’s banking industry.

Moulton was reported by Bloomberg as saying that he had been approached by bankers and executives seeking buyers for Baugur’s House of Fraser department store chain, the Iceland food chain, jewellery chain Goldsmiths and toy store Hamleys.

Baugur head of retail Jeff Blue said: “We've read Mr Moulton's comments, and would like to clarify that despite all the speculation, none of the equity stakes or other investments currently held by Baugur are currently for sale."

Moulton was quoted as saying that he is “most certainly interested” in some of Baugur’s assets, citing the most appealing as Hamleys, House of Fraser and Karen Millen.

Yesterday, Baugur chief executive Gunnar Sigurdsson reiterated again that the collapse of Iceland’s economy would have “no impact” on the operational running of its portfolio.

He added that if any Icelandic bank were forced the sell its shareholding in any of its portfolio of companies, they are all minority stakes.

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