Myer shares put on hold
MYER’S shares have been placed in a trading halt to give the troubled retailer time to fully respond to allegations it has breached its continuous disclosure obligations.
The department store chain said yesterday it was “well aware of its continuous disclosure obligations and confirms it is in compliance with them”, but subsequently requested a trading halt until Monday.
The brief statement was in response to an article in Thursday’s Australian Financial Review suggesting that a disclosure threshold may have been reached by Myer’s decision to stop providing quarterly sales updates.
Myer in May announced it would no longer provide quarterly sales updates, a move also taken by Wesfarmers.
But the lack of data has fuelled speculation over its performance ahead of the company’s November 30 annual general meeting.
Myer’s sales fell 3.2 per cent in the year to July 28, slashing underlying profit by 52 per cent to $32.5 million before $541.2 million in costs and significant items.
Second-half sales were down 2.4 per cent on a samestore basis, which Myer said showed an improvement in performance.
Last month, billionaire investor Solomon Lew again wrote to Myer shareholders urging them to trigger a spill of the company’s board at the November 30 annual general meeting.
The retail veteran has been a constant critic of Myer’s board since buying a stake long perceived as a foothold for a takeover. Myer shares were worth 45c at Thursday’s close, down from $1.19 the same time last year.
Meanwhile, NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn has taken a $2 million pay cut after the lender’s full-year cash earnings fell 14.2 per cent and the bank owned up to poor customer treatment.
Mr Thorburn’s total remuneration for the 12 months to September 30 was $4.375 million, down from $6.448 mil- lion in the previous financial year. The 32 per cent pay cut – the largest among the big four bank chief executives in both percentage and absolute terms – was largely due to a fall in long-term incentives under a new pay structure that NAB says more closely aligns executives’ interests with that of shareholders.
NAB said bonuses across the bank fell by $114 million on 2017 following a year in which the lender, like its peers, was hauled across the coals at the financial services royal commission.