The holding of the Baugur Group have been frozen by its bank following its board's decision to ask for credit protection.
The group, which has a stake in Wyevale Garden Centres, House of Fraser and many other high street names, faces being broken up after talks with Landsbanki bank over restructuring broke down.

Baugur has an estimated debt of about £1bn and its Icelandic bank took the decision, which prevent the group's portfolio being sold off.

The bank, which was itself nationalized last year by the Icelandic Government, have appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as receiver for a number of the assets.

However, all the businesses the group has a stake in are still trading as normal and are, at the this time, unlikely to be affected.