Endeavour accuses Mathieson of misleading shareholders about performance

afr.com:

Endeavour chairman Peter Hearl has accused the hotels and liquor retailing group’s largest shareholder, billionaire businessman Bruce Mathieson, of unbalanced and inaccurate commentary on the company.

In a letter to Mr Mathieson, Mr Hearl said his commentary on Endeavour’s financial performance “only serves to misinform shareholders and [has] a negative impact on the business to the detriment of all shareholders”.

Steve Donohue is the chief executive of Endeavour. Ben Searcy

Mr Hearl was responding to claims from Mr Mathieson, and others associated with him, that the company was destroying shareholder wealth by mismanaging its flagship Dan Murphy’s chain of liquor stores. Mr Mathieson made the comments, and accused Endeavour’s board of running an “insiders club”, after it failed to support former Woolworths executive Bill Wavish for election at the coming annual meeting.

Endeavour has said Mr Wavish will “not be eligible” for election if he does not obtain the necessary regulatory approvals needed to sit on the board of a company which operates liquor stores and poker machines by the meeting.

Mr Hearl, in his letter to Mr Mathieson, said the company’s constitution was “unambiguous”. “The time at which this process commenced was within Mr Wavish’s control,” he wrote. “Mr Wavish could have engaged with the company earlier to commence the regulatory approval processes, and he could also have commenced the preparation required for the regulatory
approval processes given these processes are publicly available.”

Endeavour had been the “clear market leader in our categories”, he added.

“In your correspondence and recent public commentary, it is disappointing given your previous position that you are now overlooking the impact