Lew: Myer rejected board proposal

MyerBourkestreetThe war of words developing between Myer and Premier Investments is ramping up, with the latter again calling for shareholders to vote against the appointment all directors proposed for election at the department store retailer’s upcoming annual general meeting.

As the largest shareholder in Myer, Premier today released a statement asserting that it “has no current intention of making a takeover offer for Myer” and again reiterated that it will be monitoring the Myer “strategy day” on November 1 “very closely” – also again calling upon the company to announce its current sales and profits for the Q1 period “so the market is fully informed when assessing the strategy.”

Retail veteran and chairman of Premier, Solomon Lew, said he attended a meeting with Myer’s chairman-elect Garry Hounsell on October 6, during which he sought the appointment of two Premier independent directors to the Myer board and the appointment of a further independent non-executive director (non-Premier).

“This request was taken to the Myer board by Mr Hounsell and rejected,” Premier said in a statement.

“Mr Hounsell then inferred to the media that he was yet to meet with Mr Lew, and publicly backed the “new Myer” strategy against all of the evidence that it is not working.

“Six days later, Mr Hounsell announced that he was proposing to shareholders that they should appoint Julie Ann Morrison to the board. Ms Morrison has been a company director of the failed Sass & Bide business for 21 months.”

Premier said it will vote against the appointment of all directors proposed in Myer’s Notice of Meeting, including Hounsell, and will be urging its fellow shareholders to do the same.

“Myer is an iconic and important Australian business which, for the sake of its shareholders, employees and customers, must not be allowed to suffer any further decline.

“Premier wishes to contribute its significant retail industry expertise at board level, and hopes that it can garner the support of its fellow Myer shareholders to do so.

Myer has been contacted for comment.

More to come…

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