Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments has confirmed that after doing nothing for four years, it has acquired more shares in struggling department store chain Myer.
Premier told the ASX yesterday that it picked up 41.1 million shares in Myer at 40 cents each – giving it an overall effective stake of 15.77%.
The news saw Myer shares jump more than 14% to 42.5 cents as traders sniffed new action in the shares of the struggling retailer.
And judging from his now standard spray about Myer, Lew looks like he wants to clean-out of the department store’s board as he has threatened to do several times in the past couple of years.
The 40 cents a share cost for the latest Myer parcel has confirmed the size of the huge loss Premier and Mr Low have been wearing on its 2017 Myer plunge.
He spent around $111 million buying a stake in Myer in March 2017 at $1.15 each, now he’s paid 40 cents – that’s a loss of 65% or 75 cents a share on paper.
“Something has to change, and Premier has put itself in a position to make change happen,” Lew said in a Premier statement yesterday afternoon.
“Premier calls on the failed Myer Board to resign immediately,” Lew said.
“We will work with other shareholders to reconstitute the Myer Board with directors who have expertise across retail, property, logistics and e-commerce so that Myer can reverse its decline.”
Lew said Premier remained “bitterly disappointed” by Myer’s performance.
“It’s now been more than eight months since then Myer Chairman, Garry Hounsell abruptly resigned on the morning of Myer’s 2020 AGM sighting lack of key shareholder support for his re-election,” Lew said in a release.
“On that day, Myer announced that Ms JoAnne Stephenson had been appointed Acting Chairman of Myer while a global search would be undertaken to find a replacement Chairman.
“We are stunned that Premier has not heard from the Acting Chairman at any stage. Neither the Acting Chairman nor any of the remaining Directors have bothered to pick up the phone to the company’s major shareholder about reconstituting Myer’s emaciated Board which is bereft of the retail experience, skills and talent required to turn the business around.
“In a market where innovative, experienced retailers are benefitting from rapid change, Myer continues to go backwards and its Board is missing in action.”
