myer sold for $1.4bn COLES Myer has sold its iconic Myer stores...

myer sold for $1.4bn COLES Myer has sold its iconic Myer stores to private equity company Newbridge Capital and the Myer family for $1.4 billion.

The deal includes the flagship Bourke Street store in Melbourne.
It returns the Myer chain to hands of the Myer family, 106 years after it was founded in Bendigo by poor Russian immigrant Sidney Myer.

The market had expected the 61 Myer stores, including the Bourke Street site, to fetch around $1 billion for Australia's largest retailer.

Coles Myer chief executive John Fletcher said the level of interest and the price achieved for Myer and the Myer Melbourne property reflected the strength of the business and the success of its turnaround strategy under Myer managing director Dawn Robertson.

Ms Robertson will leave after the sale has been completed, with former Woolworths finance director and director of supermarkets Bill Wavish to become executive chairman of the Myer business.


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Ms Robertson had been offered the position of deputy chairman and president but had decided to leave the company following the completion of the sale.
Newbridge head of Australia and New Zealand Ben Gray said the return to private ownership was an exciting new chapter for Myer.

"We foresee that Myer customers will experience a continuation and acceleration in the enhancement of the product offering that has been achieved by the Myer team in recent times," he said.

The Myer Family Company chairman Rupert Myer said the investment represented an opportunity to retain a financial interest in the Myer department store business.

"The family has had a one-hundred year association with Myer and we are delighted to be partnering with such an experienced and successful group in Newbridge," he said.

Coles and Myer merged to become Coles Myer Ltd in 1985.

Coles Myer (cml.ASX:Quote,News) is expected to adopt a new name, which will be decided in the coming weeks.

Coles Myer chairman Rick Allert said the board's decision to sell Myer was the culmination of a rigorous seven-month process to determine whether divestment or retention of the business would create greater value for shareholders.

"Our decision to divest has been driven by the board's belief that both our core food and liquor business and Myer will perform better separated, and that the price Newbridge has been willing to pay for the business recognises that Myer can further improve its performance with singular management focus," he said.

"The board's decision provides significant opportunities to fund expansion of and sharpen management focus on our core food and liquor franchises in line with our new strategic direction, as well as to consider a further return of capital to our shareholders."

The sale is expected to be completed in the next few months, subject to certain third party consents. The demerger reverses the 1985 merger between GJ Coles and Myer, creating a behemoth that accounted for 20 per cent of retail spending.