If Philip Green prevails in the battle for Baugur's debt, his influence in the Irish retail scene would undoubtedly rise.

His Arcadia group ranks among several big stand-alone international fashion groups with sizeable market share in Ireland.

The others include Baugur's Mosaic group, which has bigger sales than Arcadia, as well as Swedish chain HM, Zara-owner Inditex of Spain, and the British-owned Next.

Many other fashion chains have a presence in Ireland, but these groups expanded rapidly as consumer spending grew in the economic boom.

After years of growth, however, the retail sector is now under considerable strain as the economy contracts.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, for August, graphically illustrate the extent of the decline. Excluding motor trades, the value of retail sales decreased by 2.5 per cent last August compared with the same month last year and the decline was 1.4 per cent when compared with the previous month.

As unemployment rises and Budget increases in taxation take hold, retail spending is likely to decline further.

ARCADIA:

The group's interests include the following chains in Ireland: Burton; Dorothy Perkins; Evans; Outfit; Topshop; Topman and Wallis.

It made a pretax profit in the year to September 2007 of £11.67 million. Although turnover rose to £68.51 million from £59.36 mllion, pretax profit declined from £12.03 million. The decline was attributed to "highly competitive" conditions in the Irish market.

BAUGUR

Baugur's interests in Ireland include a 35 per cent stake in

HOUSE OF FRASER.

The Mosaic Fashions chain owns Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen and owns Principles, Warehouse and Shoe Studio.

It has a 50 per cent interest in Whistles, with the other 50 per cent held by a group of executives who defected from Mr Green's Top Shop.

Unity Investments, of which Baugur Group holds 37.5 per cent, has a 20.9 per cent interest in French Connection Group.

Baugur has a 6.7 per cent interest in Debenhams and Unity Investments has a 6.8 per cent interest in Debenhams.

Baugur also owns the toy chain Hamley's, which is set to open an its first Irish outlet next week at Dundrum Town Centre. Hamley's said yesterday that it was not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baugur.

"Any change in the ownership structure of shareholders has no direct impact on Hamleys ability to trade effectively. "Hamley's has no current or future funding requirement from its shareholders. Furthermore, Hamleys has no banking, funding or other ties with any Icelandic banks; Hamleys banking is solely with a major UK bank."