2. A GORILLA, A BILLIONAIRE AND A STADIUM FULL OF ANGRY SHAREHOLDERS
Our RMIT Intern Kate Jackson reports that it's Sionara Solly, as Coles Myer shareholders look to have given him the boot:
Solomon Lew's ally Mark Leibler has been returned to the Coles Myer board, but Solly will most probably lose his seat after a heated AGM in Melbourne today, in which the board and Solly in particular was accused of turning the flagship store, Myer, from a grand old lady into an old tart.
Coles Myer set up the Vodafone arena to accommodate 9000 angry shareholder, but only half turned up. Some had come from as far afield as Perth and Brisbane - others simply jumped on a tram from Solly Lew's headquarters on the 51st floor of 101 Collins St to throw a few grenades on behalf of their embattled billionaire buddy.
Early on it was apparent that the crowd from Solly's Century Plaza and Premier Investments vehicles were doing their best to stack the meeting. Crikey's own tall shareholder advocate had put on a suit to observe the democratic process at work, and thrown his hat into the ring as a candidate director.
But Crikey's first contribution to proceedings was to point out to the meeting that three of the first four questions to Chairman Rick Allert were very detailed and specific in their criticism of Fletcher and other members of the board. Candidate Stephen Mayne called on those who intended on speaking to announce their allegiances as these previous speakers had obviously been Solly's stooges.
It was a suggestion which drew loud applause. Stephen also raised the mater of Rick Allert's conflict of interest, questioning whether the chairman should be on the audit committee when he was also until recently on the board to Southcorp, a major supplier of Coles Myer. He also wanted to know whether the board was going to follow the lead taken by companies such as BHP, Lend Lease and West Australian Newspapers in dumping director retirement packages for ex-chairman, ie. Stan Wallis.
Unhappy shareholders unleashed colourful speeches and passionate diatribes. Many were angry about the performance of the board and felt Solomon Lew's retail experience and dedication to the shareholder discount card was admirable. But one woman noted that Solly had been involved with Myer sine the 1980s and in that time she had seem the "grand old lady turn into a grand old tart."
A number of Solly's people spoke in defence of the discount card, saying it was not supposed to be a loyalty card - it was a privilege card for long suffering shareholders.
In his address to the shareholders, chairman Allert highlighted the performance of their largest and most profitable business, food and liquor. He also praised CEO John Fletcher's leadership and was careful to outline the reasons why the board wanted to phase out the popular shareholder discount card. To wit: such a scheme was not used anywhere else in the world, it was six times more expensive than other retail loyalty programs and it discriminated against customers who were not shareholders.
Altogether, Allert fielded 31 questions over nearly two hours on the accounts alone. The audience was clearly getting restless waiting for the real action to begin. This reporter had to leave before the re-election of board members was discussed, but Stephen has just returned with news of Solly's impending demise.
The site will be updated in the near future with all the action and infighting we have come to expect form a good AGM.
An honourable mention, however, must be extended to the Gorilla Man standing outside the Arena. He got caught in traffic this morning on the way to the meeting, so not all of the shareholder would have been able to see the 2 x 3 metre sign he had made out of black and orange garbage bags. Both for those of you who didn't, Crikey is here to tell you it spelt out YANNON in large orange letters. Lest we forget.
CML Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
