In 60 years as a ragtrader, billionaire Solomon Lew has seen it all. But the circus that surrounded his retail giant Premier Investments on Monday was like something out of a bad movie script – although whether it was comedy or tragedy still isn’t clear.

What we do know is that on Monday morning, someone (or someones) made a ham-fisted attempt to scuttle a prospective deal what would see Premier sell its apparel brands, including Just Jeans, Portmans, Dotti, Jay Jays and Jacqui E, by leaking sales data to The Australian that showed sales going backwards and below budget.