One side-effect of the credit crisis is forecast to be bumper bargains on the high street for anyone with spare cash and few or no borrowings. Sir Philip Green, an entrepreneur with few debts and piles of money (a rare species) has started shopping, preparing to buy Baugur’s UK high street names at a discount.

Thwarted in his desire to acquire Marks & Spencer in 2004, the man who started out in the rag trade with the Jean Jeannie chain may soon to be able to console himself with stakes in an array of retail assets including Day Birger Mikkelsen, Coast, Hamleys, House of Fraser, Principles, Warehouse, Whistles and a dozen other familiar fascias. His empire already includes BhS and Arcadia, the Burton, Evans, Miss Selfridges and Top Shop conglomerate.

Previously, such a sway over the market would have been seen as anticompetitive, but the approval given to Lloyds TSB’s takeover of HBOS suggests that such concerns have been set aside. Baugur’s British operation does, after all, employ 55,000 people.

Observers say the £2 billion figure put widely on Baugur’s debts is a “very fancy price” given the parlous position of the retail sector but, whatever Sir Philip is paying, there now seems much less chance that these chains will fall victim to the credit crisis.

Sir Philip could be in control of Hamleys before Christmas. This year Santa Claus may have a deep tan and prefer yachts to sleighs.

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