Myer’s chairman under attack

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 25

Myer’s chairman under attack

The board of The Myer Emporium, Ltd, came under fire at a torrid annual meeting in Melbourne last week.

Shareholders badgered the chairman (Mr Kenneth Myer) for more titan an hour about the company’s profit, share price, dividend, expansion programme, and its failure to make a bonus issue.

The company held dividend at 22 per cent after A slight rise in profit from $15,147,000 to $15,248,000.

The company’s last bonus issue was a one-for-two in 1960. A shareholder said the

company had made a bonus issue in 1960 when its earning rate was 35 per cent. “Now it’s 50 per cent and 1970, so why hasn’t a bonus issue been made.” he asked.

The chairman replied that there wouldn’t be any benefit to shareholders if the company made a one-for-one bonus and cut the dividend in half.

Bonuses were usually made when the company had a rapidly ascending rate of profits and could maintain its dividend on the increased capital, Mr Myer said. In response to another shareholder’s questioning, Mr Myer said the company had tried to make a balance between expansion and profit. "It’s much easier to do nothing. We could have made a lot more profit, but we believe we have a responsibility to plan for the future,” he said.

(In the annual report, directors said the company planned to extend department store space from 5.8 million square feet to 8.4 million square feet by 1974.). “We are not expanding for expansion’s sake. And we’re not under any illusions of grandeur,” Mr Myer said.