Premier Investments, the largest shareholder in Myer Holdings, has released a four-point missile strike against Myer.
The company has released a statement to "make its intentions clear" following a notice of Myer's general meeting next month.
In the statement, Premier told Myer shareholders that:
1. It has no current intention of making a takeover offer for Myer.
2. It alleged Garry Hounsell, the chairman-elect of Myer, attended a meeting with Premier chairman Solomon Lew on October 6. During that meeting, Premier sought:
‐ The appointment of two Premier independent directors to the Myer Board
‐ The appointment of a further independent non-executive Director to the Myer Board (non-Premier)
This request was taken to the Myer Board by Hounsell and rejected.
Premier alleged that Hounsell then inferred to the media that he was yet to meet with Lew, and publicly backed the “New Myer” strategy "against all of the evidence that it is not working."
Six days later, Hounsell announced that he was proposing to shareholders that they should appoint Julie Ann Morrison to the Board.
Premier told shareholders Morrison has been a company director of the "failed" Sass & Bide business for 21 months.
3. Premier 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.
4. Premier will reserve its right to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders in the short term to allow shareholders to vote on its nominees for the Myer Board.
Premier also reiterated it will be monitoring the Myer “strategy day” on November 1 "very closely" and again calls upon the company to announce its current sales and profits for the Q1 period so the market is fully informed when assessing the strategy.