Di Pilla to present Masters big-box retail plans

The mastermind behind the Masters’ properties purchase will next month present plans for a new force in big-box retail.

Former GWS coach Kevin Sheedy with David Di Pilla in 2013.

The mastermind behind a plan to harness the vast wealth of Australia’s richest families and canniest investors to snap up hardware chain Masters’ properties, former UBS Australia boss David Di Pilla, will present his investment case next month for a new force in big-box retail.

Mr Di Pilla, who on Wednesday night sealed a deal with Woolworths worth more than $750 million to buy its 61 Masters sites and a further 21 development sites, is not expected to plump up his new investment vehicle for a public float just yet.

But his big-name backers, who include the families behind retailer Spotlight, Chemist Warehouse and members of one of Sydney’s richest families, the Salteri clan, are likely to be keen on an eventual exit strategy to crystallise the expected massive profits to be made on the back of Woolworths’ misfortune.

Masters sites will be transformed into new shopping destinations for shops such as JB Hi-Fi, Spotlight, Chemist Warehouse, The Good Guys and Anaconda.

In the meantime, Woolworths’ loss-making Masters chain made its mark on the supermarket giant’s full-year results yesterday for the last time. Much like its first appearance on the accounts six years ago, it triggered losses, headaches and shareholder pain.

Woolworths reported that Masters had lost another $233.5m in fiscal 2016, although that loss had shrunk by 4.9 per cent, but the business remained years away from breaking even despite pledges from former Woolworths CEOs Michael Luscombe and Grant O’Brien, who were the backers of the idea for the push into hardware.

Masters’ sales for the year were 21.8 per cent higher at $1.1bn. But the damage was done, and Woolworths’ decision to book more than $3.2bn in impairment charges against its doomed Masters venture wiped out all of its profit for the year to sink into the red for the first time in 23 years.

At midnight on December 11, Masters will be no more and Woolworths will walk away from the calamitous hardware chain and hand the keys to Mr Di Pilla and his well-heeled investors. They will probably make a killing.