Endeavour to suffer first strike but Bill Wavish tilt fails

afr.com:

Endeavour will be hit by a protest vote against its executive remuneration at its annual meeting of shareholders this week, but a push by its largest investor to install his ally on the board of the liquor retailer has failed.

Bruce Mathieson, the billionaire publican, was pushing for former Woolworths executive Bill Wavish to be elected as a director against the wishes of the rest of the board, and has waged a campaign against the company which he regards as a poor performer.

But votes lodged ahead of the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, will deliver the 25 per cent vote needed to record a strike against the company’s remuneration report. Mr Mathieson, whose son Bruce Mathieson jnr is an Endeavour director, controls 15.1 per cent of the registry and voted against the resolution despite earlier signalling he would likely abstain.

Bruce Mathieson, Endeavour’s largest shareholder, is not happy with the strategy the company is pursuing at its Dan Murphy’s chain. Eamon Gallagher

Norges Bank Investment Management, a Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, is among the large funds voting against the election of Mr Wavish and in favour of the remuneration report, as recommended by the board.

Another major shareholder, Woolworths, last week indicated it would vote in the way that Endeavour’s board had recommended. Endeavour was demerged from the supermarket retailer in 2021 and listed on the ASX. But the company’s share price has subsided since then, and Mr Wavish and Mr Mathieson are particularly aggrieved at what they say is a poor strategy at Dan Murphy’s, one of the country’s largest liquor-retailing chains.

Mr Mathieson will on Monday send a final communication to Endeavour’s 420,000 retail shareholders urging them to push for the