UK High Street offers Opportunities for Retail Investment Bankers, Celebrations Pounced on by Card Factory

The Icelandic invasion of the British high street is under threat as investments turn sour for Icelandic giant Baugur, which controls House of Fraser, Hamleys ("the finest toys in the world"), Iceland, Whittard of Chelsea as well as having minority stakes in Debenhams PLC, Woolworths (12.4% stake via Unity Investments), French Connection and an 8.6% interest in Saks. Cheap Icelandic financing enabled Reykjavik-based company Baugur to expand into the UK and US. Woolies shares were suspended last week following talks of a sale. Retail billionaire Sir Philip Green, who bought a £6.7m for a stake in Moss Bros (which owns the Moss and Cecil Gee brands) from Baugur in November, and sold it a few days later for a £1m profit, is reported to be prowling for more assets (and liabilities, potentially taking over £1bn of Baugur's reported debt).

Menswear retailer Moss Bros said it will cut costs in the face of a "challenging" trading environment. Celebrations Group, the card-retailer, went into insolvency in October. Kroll Limited have been appointed as Administrators. Card Factory have bought over 80 stores.

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Meanwhile, in the banking sector, new CEO of RBS, Stephen Hester, has announced a six month grace period for home loan defaulters. CSFB has also announced it is cutting 650 jobs in the UK, following a $1bn loss in Q3 2008. HSBC, "the world's local bank", said it will cut 500 UK jobs.