Endeavour Group narrowly avoids first strike as chair admits performance not good enough.
Shareholders have delivered a brutal verdict on Endeavour Group's performance, with a large voting against executive pay amid a 40 per cent share price collapse.
Endeavour Group, the owner of Dan Murphy’s, BWS and more than 350 hotels, has narrowly missed a first strike against its remuneration report as its interim chair and interim chief executive conceded the company’s recent performance and share price was not good enough.
Addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney, interim chair Duncan Makeig heard lengthy criticism from investors in the face of the group’s spluttering earnings and sliding share price, but pledged with the arrival of new CEO Jayne Hrdlicka in January that the business would improve.
But many investors seem impatient - having witnessed a 16 per cent fall in the share price in the last 12 months and a 39.75 per cent fall since Endeavour was demerged from Woolworths in 2021 - and almost handed the group a first strike at its AGM.
At the AGM there was a 21.43 per cent vote against the remuneration report, just short of the 25 per cent needed to trigger a first strike.
Mr Makeig told investors he understood their impatience over the time until former Virgin airlines boss Ms Hrdlicka will come aboard as CEO (her appointment was announced in April but she doesn’t start until January) and the declining share price.
“I acknowledge that the time required to secure a permanent CEO and our share price performance created frustration for shareholders,” he said.
“I’m confident, however, that the milestones we have delivered this year will position Endeavour for its next phase of growth and value creation.”
Former Rothschild deal maker and activist investor David Kingston was in the audience and delivered a long list of criticisms to the board including “terrible results” at every level as well as a “revolution” in the company’s executive ranks including a search for a new chair, as well as a new incoming boss for Dan Murphy’s and BWS.
At one point Mr Makeig labelled Mr Kingston’s criticisms and statements as a “soliloquy”, but he and the interim CEO Kate Beattie both agreed the company’s performance was not good enough.
“While our share price has underperformed and is not where we want it to be, we are confident in the outlook and the underlying strength of our assets and brands,” Ms Beattie said.
Mr Makeig said the search for a new chair was well progressed, with a new chair to be named by early next year.
“Since being appointed as interim chairman in August, I have been actively leading the board’s process to appoint additional non-executive directors and our search for a new independent chairman, with the intention of having this leadership in place by early 2026,” he said.
In a trading update Ms Beattie reiterated comments at the release recently of the company’s first quarter trading of a soft trading to the year.
Originally published as Endeavour Group narrowly avoids first strike as chair admits performance not good enough.
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