Bhs chief's £500,000 a day

PHILIP GREEN is on course for one of the biggest paydays in history - equal to £500,000 a day - after his Bhs stores chain saw its profits surge to £100m. He bought the business for £200m two years ago when it was struggling but it is now valued by City analysts at more than £1bn.

These are the highest profits in its 74-year history. Green, 50, is expected to declare a special dividend of up to £180m after reporting more than tripled profits of £100.2m for the year. As Green and his family own 95% of the shares, his payout will be equivalent to almost £500,000 a day. It is believed to be his first big payout since taking over the company.

Womenswear performed particularly well with like-for-like sales surging by 25%. Sales for the year to 30 March were up by 7% to £851.3m, with like-for-like turnover ahead by 5.4%. That has edged up to 5.7% over the first seven weeks of the group's new financial year, to 18 May. Operating margins showed a strong improvement, from 4.2% to

11.8%, and net debt was slashed from £125m to £14m.

He declined to comment today on the size of the payout, but said: 'There will be a dividend this year and it will be approved by the board. It will be disclosed when our accounts are filed later this year.' Based in Monaco,

Green is one of the most colourful characters in retail. Only two months ago, he spent £5m on a three-day 50th birthday extravaganza, flying friends out to Cyprus and lavishing them with food, wine and entertainment. More than 200 people were invited and a toga party was the high point. Such was the glamour of the occasion that the St John's Wood branch of Joseph was said to have had one of its best weeks in early March as the guests ensured they would not be underdressed for the event.

Having turned round Bhs in less than two years, Green is being touted as the sharpest mind on the High Street - and the richest. Historically however, life has been far from smooth for the new billionaire.

Having attended boarding school Carmel College, he left at 16 without a single qualification and soon took over his father's property portfolio, wheeling and dealing throughout his twenties. He made a name for himself in retail when in his early thirties he bought the Jean Jeanie chain of jeans shops for £65,000 and sold it a year later for £3m. His lowpoint in the trade came in 1992, when he was forced to quit the Amber Day company after a massive row.