If the Myer board thinks it has dodged a bullet at its annual meeting next month by replacing its chairman and appointing a new director to the board, it is in for a rude awakening.
Billionaire retailer Solomon Lew will vote against the election of chairman-elect Garry Hounsell as well as the election of Julie Ann Morrison, days after the company announced her appointment as a director.
It is understood that Lew, who is a major shareholder in Myer, will also vote against any other Myer directors planning to stand for re-election.
Myer is still to release its notice of meeting, which will include the remuneration report as well as a list of who will nominate. A company spokesman confirmed those standing include Hounsell, Morrison and JoAnne Stephenson, a former partner in KPMG's advisory division.
Director Anne Brennan is retiring after serving on the board since September 2009, which leaves Chris Froggatt the longest standing director. Froggatt joined the board in December 2010 with a background in human resources.
Since Myer listed on the ASX in November 2009 at $4.10 its shares have fallen more than 80 per cent, destroying $2 billion in market value, as investors dumped the stock following a string of shock profit downgrades, scandals and a revolving door of management.
The outlook isn't rosy. Store closures, the arrival of Amazon and other international competition, means things will only get tougher. Citi has a price target of 74?? a share on the stock and estimates the company's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) will go backwards over the next few years. In 2017 Myer booked an EBIT of $107 million. Citi is now forecasting it will generate EBIT of $71 million by 2020.
Morgan Stanley has a 70?? price target on the stock and has questioned whether it was time to renew its target metrics, something that will no doubt be discussed at Myer's strategy day which is scheduled for November 1, just ahead of the November 24 annual general meeting.
Earlier this month the incumbent chairman Paul McClintock backed away from plans to stand for re-election after a backlash from investors including Lew. The rumour is that Hounsell went to the board and told them he wouldn't stand unless McClintock retired, or they would all be dead ducks. The board is rumoured to have backed Hounsell's plan on the basis he agreed to publicly support the Myer strategy, which he did. A spokesman said Hounsell had authorised him to say "there was no substance to the claims".
When Hounsell announced he would take over as chairman of Myer at the AGM, he said "I believe in the New Myer strategy which is helping the business to compete in a challenging retail environment." He said he could see "green shoots of a turnaround at the retailer" and that he was a "fan" of Myer's clearance stores.
They are strong comments that could come back to haunt him, if the company changes its strategic targets.
It is why Lew issued a note this week calling on the company to release its sales for the three months to October at its strategy day on November 1 to provide evidence of the recovery.
The point is McClintock might have stood down but the problems at Myer remain: a board lacking in strong retail experience and a management team that doesn't understand customer service and sells products that customers don't want to buy.
Put simply, its New Myer strategy - a five-year transformation strategy launched two years ago - is in tatters. To put it into perspective, it recapitalised the company at $600 million, which is what the market value of the company closed at on Friday.
Lew and outgoing chairman McClintock have exchanged dozens of emails since Lew bought into the company in March. The emails outline in detail what's going wrong at Myer. They are believed to include a warning that Myer had a problem with Top Shop and Sass & Bide and that not only an impairment but a downgrade was on the cards. McClintock is understood to have said he would take it on board.
Other emails include photo attachments of summer clothes for sale in the depth of winter, creased clothes crookedly hanging on mannequins, bras and panties dumped on a filthy carpet and clothes mixed and twisted. Stores at Frankston and Bondi Junction looked more like a jumble sale than a department store.
For Lew, having a board with retail experience is a key plank in fixing Myer.
It is why he will vote against the election of Hounsell and Morrison. Hounsell has no experience in retail and it Lew is believed to be less than impressed with Morrison's retail experience.
In a statement to the ASX on October 17, Morrison was described as having "extensive experience in fashion retailing and brands". She was managing director of Bulgari Australia between 2007 and 2014 as well as managing director of Bulgari UK between 2012 and 2014. (Bulgari is an Italian designer label specialising in jewellery, watches and bags, while Myer is a mainstream retailer.)
In February 2016 Morrison became a non executive director of subsidiary boards at Myer which operate sass & bide and which recently suffered the ignominy of having its value slashed $38.8 million due to poor performance.
Last week Myer chief executive Richard Umbers travelled to London to speak about global retail at a private function held by former politician Alexander Downer, the High Commissioner for Australia in Britain. It was a visit that Lew is understood to have raised in a email with McClintock as to whether it was prudent for the CEO to be absent during a busy and challenging time.
Umbers is understood to have told the crowd that Myer needs to find its relevance in the market. He is right about that. He also said the company's focus was a lot on the "Millennials". It will be interesting to see what he has to say come strategy day. There's a lot riding on it.
