Solly Lew joins Myer's CEO as a decent jockey, but sits on the board of directors

Myer shares lost nearly half of their value over the past year and traded at 42 ¢ on Thursday.

The iconic retailer suffered a first strike (a vote of 25% or more against its pay report) at its AGM last year, and a second strike on Friday will entail a motion to reverse the table. This motion would need 50% to pbad.

At the same time, Myer's director, Lyndsey Cattermole, named last month, may be upset after influential proxy adviser Ownership Matters has recommended shareholders vote against her re-election on Friday.

Ms Cattermole founded the Aspect Computing IT department, served as Director until last year at the Estate Treasure – which is also chaired by Hounsell – and was a director at Foster's Group and Tatts.

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Ownership Matters explained to customers that Myer needed managers with recent retail experience and expertise, which Ms. Cattermole did not seem to possess.

Lew would not be aware of how he thought the votes would fall, but said the number of proxy votes received by the prime minister had "increased significantly" compared to last year.

Last year, the 29 percent protest vote was essentially a mbad of small private investors 'prime minister', and Myer, and getting support from large institutional investors will be crucial to Lew's success.

The second and third investors of Myer – Investors Mutual and Wilson Asset Management – have so far supported the board of directors.

While the Prime Minister was pressuring shareholders to overthrow Myer's board of directors, Lew said Thursday that he would vote in favor of a motion to issue shares of Myer to its new CEO, Mr. King, who held the position of prime minister in June.

"In the last few weeks, I've spent time with John Myer's general manager, John King, and his chief lieutenant, Alan Winstanley, and we've had very productive and positive discussions," said Mr. Lew following the annual general meeting of prime minister in Melbourne.

"I sincerely hope that they succeed in transforming Myer – after all, the Prime Minister has the most to lose if he does not."

He said Myer looked like a racehorse, being ridden by a "decent" jockey but driven by Myer's "failed board".

"We have to change coaches … but none of this is John King's fault," he said.

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Myer maintained that the prime minister was trying to "take control" of Myer via a coup in the conference room and had declared that he would have to launch a public takeover bid. he wanted to run the company. Myer refused to give Premier 's board seats for reasons of conflict of interest, since Premier is both a supplier and a competitor.

Premier owns the brands Peter Alexander, Smiggle and Just Jeans, while the Lew family has interests in brands such as Seed, FCUK and Nine West.

Owner attack

On Thursday, the prime minister also dealt a blow to the troubled shopping street of Chapel Street in Melbourne, saying he would close three stores – a Just Jeans, a Dotti and a Smiggle – in the space of a few months shopping.

"I think that's another sign of the times when homeowners do not understand the pace of change in the retail market," said Chief Executive Mark McInnes.

"We will be leaving these stores at the end of the lease and this will be the first time in 40 years that we will not trade iconic brands in this street."

Chapel Street was the birthplace of Just Jeans in the 1970s. Mr. McInnes said the Prime Minister had asked their owners a 70% discount, which was denied.

"We have been walking in Chapel Street recently and there are about 45 leases, so they may want that rent but they are not going to get it," he said.

Lew said the prime minister will not lose any sales by closing unprofitable windows by switching to online shopping.

Premier has closed 17 stores last year, including flagship stores Just Jeans and Portmans, in Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall, and has closed 103 over the last three years.