Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green's Arcadia reported a five per cent rise in annual profit, helped by the international expansion of its Topshop chain and the sale of the loss-making BHS.

The group, which also owns the Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Burton brands, made an operating profit before goodwill and exceptional items of £251.6 million in the year to August 29, up from £238.4m in the previous year.

The results are for continuing operations only and so benefit from the absence of the heavily loss-making BHS department store chain which was offloaded to buyout firm Retail Acquisitions in March.

Arcadia, run by Scottish born chief executive Ian Grabiner, said total sales were broadly flat at £2.07 billion, with sales at UK stores open over a year down 0.9 per cent.

Billionaire Sir Philip, who has twice tried and failed to buy British clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer, called it "a robust performance in challenging times."

Arcadia ended the year with cash deposits of £229.1m.

However, for the 10th successive year, the company did not pay a dividend.

In 2005, he took on additional debt and paid his Monaco-resident wife Christina, the ultimate owner of Arcadia, a £1.2bn dividend.

Topshop/Topman opened five wholly owned new stores in the United States in the 2014-15 year, taking the total to nine.

Some 34 new overseas franchise outlets for Topshop/Topman were also opened as well as 45 across the group's other brands.

Arcadia currently trades from 2,358 UK stores, having closed 86 over the last year.

In the first 10 weeks of Arcadia's new financial year total VAT sales tax inclusive like-for-like sales were down 2.3 per cent.