Its appeal is more sober, more serious than, say, Topshop or Bhs, offering suits and formal wear for the discerning British male, and yesterday Moss Bros attracted the attention of one of the big hitters of the high street.

Sir Philip Green, the retail billionaire, bought a 28 per cent stake for £6.7 million and confirmed that he was considering a bid for the company.

Sir Philip told The Times that he had bought almost 27 million Moss Bros shares at 24.95p, a 58.5 per cent premium to Tuesday’s closing price of 15¾p, from Baugur, the beleaguered Icelandic investment company.

His motives for the move could be several. Industry sources suggested that Sir Philip may want to stop other retailers getting into trouble in case they collapse and flood the high street with cheap stock in the crucial pre-Christmas trading period.

Kate Moss, the model, who designs a Topshop range, is rumoured to be considering launching a menswear range, which might benefit from links with another menswear store.

Moss Bros shares soared by 68 per cent to finish the day at 26½p, already above the price that Sir Philip paid. Shares in Laura Ashley, which owns about 10 per cent of Moss Bros, also rose, up 1½p at 17½p, as traders speculated about a bid for Moss Bros by Sir Philip.

If he does make an offer for the suit-hire specialist it could be the first in a series of purchases of devalued Baugur assets by Sir Philip.

Baugur, the biggest shareholder in Mosaic, the women’s fashion group behind Principles, Oasis and Karen Millen, has stakes of 35 per cent in House of Fraser and 7 per cent in Debenhams, and owns Hamleys, the toy retailer, Iceland, the supermarket chain, and Jane Norman and Whistles, the womenswear shops.

Through Unity, the investment vehicle, which it part-owns, Baugur holds a 17.6 per cent stake in French Connection, a 7 per cent stake in Debenhams and a 12.4 per cent stake in Woolworths, through contracts for difference.

Unity’s stake in French Connection has been depleted because some of the stake was backed by Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg, part of Kaupthing, the nationalised Icelandic bank.

This year Baugur made an unsuccessful £40 million bid for the whole of Moss Bros, which foundered after stakebuilding by the Malaysian-owned Laura Ashley.

A spokeswoman for Baugur said: “The Moss Bros stake was a longer strategic holding and, following the premium price offered by Sir Philip Green, we have decided to sell.” Moss Bros said that it was waiting to hear from Sir Philip’s investment vehicle about its intentions.

Sir Philip said: “We’ll have a look at it in the next couple of days. We’ll have a conversation with Moss Bros’s management and we’ll see where everyone is before deciding [whether to make a further bid].”

Sir Philip said that the clothes-hire side of the Moss Bros business had attracted him to the company.

Moss Bros’s brands include Moss Bros, Savoy Taylors Guild and Cecil Gee. It operates the Hugo Boss, Canali and Simon Carter retail franchises.

A bidder would have to win over Moss Bros’s founding Moss and Gee families, many of whom opposed Baugur’s bid. They own 23 per cent of the company.

Last month Sir Philip flew to Reykjavik with an offer to buy the estimated £1.5 billion of Baugur’s debt that has been frozen by the Icelandic Government since the crisis. A deal would give Sir Philip effective control of the group’s portfolio.

He said recently that because of the economic crisis in Iceland, talks were still up in the air about buying parts of Baugur’s empire to add to his Arcadia portfolio, which includes Dorothy Perkins and Burton, as well as Topshop and Bhs.

A tie-up of the two groups could put under one umbrella more than 6,000 shops throughout the UK employing about 90,000 people.

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