RETAIL billionaire Philip Green has added a further £460m to his bank account - thanks in part to his Acardia empire in the south.

Acardia titles include Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Top Man, which all have branches in Southampton and Eastleigh and employ hundreds of people between them.

It racked up an astonishing operating profit of £296.3m profit for the financial year, up 30 per cent.

Green's £460m is thought to be the largest dividend ever to be paid to one person in British business history.

That payout overshadows what the 52-year-old Midas Man picked up from the other company he owns, Bhs, earlier this month.

He collected £40m after the high street retailer, which has stores in Southampton, Fareham and Winchester, made record operating profits of £111.6m.

The entrepreneur was ranked fourth in the latest Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated fortune of £3.6 billion.

Green said: "We are making the best returns of any private retailer in Europe, and we are probably the best performing private retail group in the world today."

Other bosses have celebrated bumper payouts in recent months, and are in charge of thousands of employees in Hampshire, include:

BP chief executive Lord Browne of Madingley, who picked up £3.3m in pay and bonuses after steering the oil giant to record profits in 2003. He also benefited from share options worth £1.5 million.

Former ITV boss Michael Green, who was awarded a £15m "golden farewell'' following his ousting from the merged broadcaster. Mr Green received a cash-plus-shares package for his final year as chairman of Carlton Communications, which merged with Meridian-owning Granada in March.

According to the annual accounts of HSBC, chairman Sir John Bond, who was rewarded with shares worth £2.1m for a year in which pre-tax profits grew by 37 per cent. He also picked up an annual bonus of £1.1m.

Barclays chief executive Matt Barrett received a total remuneration package of £3.09 million in 2003 compared with £1.7m in 2002, the group's annual report showed in April.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy, who received a 15 per cent pay boost, taking his salary and benefits to £2.8m in the past year, following another strong performance by the supermarket group.

Former Vodafone boss Sir Christopher Gent saw his pay packet rise by 20 per cent last year to £2.9m, at a time when profits grew by 36 per cent. It came after he turned the group into one of the biggest companies in the world.

Dyno-Rod's 74-year-old owner Jim Zockoll, a former airline pilot, who stands to take the lion's share of £60m if the group is bought by British Gas owner Centrica.