Endeavour detractors hone their message, zero in on ‘bespoke stores’

afr.com:

It was a surprisingly abrupt eruption of hostilities between Endeavour’s board and the hotel and liquor retailer’s largest shareholder, billionaire businessman Bruce Mathieson, last week. And relations are bound only to deteriorate as both parties hit the pavement selling their takes on the company’s ailments to other investors and analysts.

Then there’s the matter of Bill Wavish, the former Myer chairman and Woolworths executive whose election to the board is ostensibly the reason behind the blue between Mathieson and Endeavour, run by chief executive Steve Donohue and chaired by Pizza Hut executive Peter Hearl.

Dan Murphy’s small-scale Martin Place store has caught the ire of dissident shareholders. Dominic Lorrimer

Those working with Wavish, who is in Hawaii and due back next week, and Mathieson have already drawn up a strategy, according to some in the market privy to the plans. Mathieson may be firing shots at the board – accusing them of running an “insiders’ club” and “material value destruction” – but Wavish will be trying to sell himself as a director.

Part of a presentation drafted by Wavish’s team and circulated to a small group of investors, and obtained by Street Talk, appears to show what the key talking points will be in the coming investor sales pitch. Some of it is very familiar. “Endeavour has destroyed 25 per cent of shareholder value in 12 months,” one slide reads, noting a 37.4 per cent “peak-to-trough price decline equating to $5.6 billion in share value destroyed since August”.

A series of graphs maps out exactly how Wavish sees Endeavour competing against its peers. Endeavour’s share price is down 25.4 per cent in the 12 months to September 21; Coles is down 6 per cent while Metcash is down 8.2