Another Myer annual meeting, another bunfight between agitated investors led by Solomon Lew and his Premier Investments and a defiant board.
The meeting saw Myer’s directors avoided being tossed out by shareholders despite more than a third voting to spill department chain’s board.
Confidence comments from the chair, Gary Hounsell were ignored as some shareholders preferred to engage in some blood sport against the board that ended up going nowhere.
But the company’s remuneration report for the AGM took another hit, being voted down for the second year in a row.
The vote saw 37.4% of proxies lodged before the AGM on Friday voted against the remuneration report. That was up from the 29% last year (25% or more is needed).
The second strike – a vote of more than 25 percent against the remuneration report – opened the door for the spill motion, with 35% of votes cast for and 63% against.
Analysts said that despite failing to dislodge the board, the second strike was a symbolic win for Mr. Lew and his Premier Investments, which owns a loss-making 11.1% of Myer.
New director Lyndsey Cattermole, who was appointed to the board last month, only just cleared the 50% hurdle to being re-elected, with 56% of proxy votes backing her, while David Whittle was elected with 63% support.
Myer shares jumped more than 5.8% to 45.5 cents in a market that saw another nasty sell off at the end of a tough month.
The ASX 200 fell more than 91 points or 1.6% yesterday in a nasty sell-off.
