A host of British household names including West Ham Football Club, the supermarket chain Somerfield and the Slug & Lettuce pub chain are now wholly or part-owned by the Icelandic Government.

It stepped in yesterday to take control of its remaining Icelandic banking giant, Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander, after British moves to take control of the bank’s assets tipped it into insolvency.

Kaupthing owns stakes in British names worth approximately £1.6 billion and the Icelandic Government is likely to try to sell them as soon as possible because it needs the money to keep its economy afloat.

Somerfield is co-owned by Kaupthing and the flamboyant property magnate Robert Tchenguiz, who went out with the model Caprice before he married. The entrepreneur, known for his pink-tinted spectacles, lost more than £1 billion in 24 hours this week as other assets co-owned with Kaupthing – including a stake in J Sainsbury – were offloaded in a fire-sale.

Mr Tchenguiz and Kaupthing have already agreed the sale of Somerfield. But they also co-own a range of other businesses in which the Icelandic Government will want to sell its stakes.

These include the Bay and Restaurant pub group – which owns the La Tasca tapas bar chain, the Slug & Lettuce bar chain and the Ha Ha bar chain – and the Town & City pub group, which owns Yates’s.

Kaupthing was also a big investor in the British high street. It has stakes in Baugur – which itself owns stakes in many brands including Whittard of Chelsea, House of Fraser, Karen Millen, Oasis, Debenhams, French Connection, Moss Bros and Woolworths.

Baugur, which is owned by Icelandic entrepreneurs, said yesterday that its stores would be safe whatever happens to Kaupthing’s stakes.

The Icelandic bank also backed a buyout of West Ham Football Club last year. The club is owned by the Icelander who owns the bank, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson. Football websites have been besieged by worried West Ham fans posting queries about whether their club will survive.

The bank also once backed the restaurants of Gordon Ramsay. Mr Ramsay was lucky enough to find another bank – the Royal Bank of Scotland – to back him in July and no longer has any links with Kaupthing.

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