British billionaire Philip Green, whose family owns the retailer Arcadia Group, is in talks with several parties over a possible sale of its BHS department stores.

"We have had several approaches on BHS over the past few months. It is now the company's plan to explore whether any of these can be brought to a conclusion," a spokeswoman for Arcadia said on Sunday.

Arcadia posted a 3 percent fall in annual profit in November, partly the result of bigger BHS losses.

The losses at BHS widened to 21 million pounds in 2013-14 from 19.3 million pounds the year before.

Green, whose family ranked 16th on the 2013 Sunday Times UK rich list, said in November that turning round BHS remained challenging.

He bought BHS for 200 million pounds in 2000.

In 2013, Green said he would listen to what any putative bidder for BHS had to say but had maintained that no talks were underway.

"If something turned up that made some sense we'd have a look at it. Why would we not? We're in business," Green had told Reuters at his flagship Topshop store on London's Oxford Street.

BHS currently has over 180 stores in the UK, according to the company website.