Store owner Myer sued by TPT Patrol over profit guidance

Australia’s biggest department store owner Myer has been slapped with a second lawsuit in as many weeks.

Myer has been slapped with a second lawsuit in as many weeks. Picture: Sarah Matray

Australia’s biggest department store owner Myer has been slapped with its second lawsuit in as many weeks.

The latest, a class-action lawsuit resulting from a profit warning two years ago, comes as it digests a writ from property mogul John Gandel.

Myer told the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday that legal proceedings had been served on the company by a former shareholder, TPT Patrol, as trustee for the Amies Superannuation Fund.

The proceedings have been filed in the Federal Court and are reported to be for TPT Patrol on its own behalf as well as a defined, but unnamed, group of shareholders.

A search of the company shows that Amies Superannuation Fund’s two directors are Gregg and Lisa Amies, of Brighton. Christopher Amies is the director of TPT Patrol and an investor who had about 40,000 Myer shares when the retailer issued its profit warning.

However, it is believed the class action has links to a previous attempt to sue Myer by shareholder class-action litigator Mark Elliott, whose similar action against Myer was thrown out by the Supreme Court earlier this month.

Mr Elliott, a former partner of Minter Ellison, declined to confirm or deny he was tied up in the fresh shareholder class action against Myer but did confirm to The Weekend Australian that he had talked with Mr and Mrs Amies.

“They are people who I have had contact with who expressed disappointment that the case I brought was stayed and they like many others were keenly interested in it, and were very keen to start their own case,’’ Mr Elliott said.

“They are sophisticated investors who are aggrieved by what Myer has done, allegedly.”

He wouldn’t comment on whether he was helping to fund the new case, or prepare for trial.

“I am always involved in highly prospective cases. I am determined to have Myer explain why it took three months for them to tell the market they were going to miss their profit guidance by a substantial sum, and there are many other aggrieved shareholders.”

Myer said in its statement to the ASX that the claim, in substance, was identical to the group action started against the company in March 2015 by Mr Elliott’s Melbourne City Investments.

Earlier this month Mr Elliott lost his bid to wage a court battle against Myer, after the Supreme Court found he used the court for an “illegitimate” purpose, which was an abuse of process.

Last week Myer said it had been served a writ on behalf of Mr Gandel and Perpetual, the trustee for Vicinity Centres, the owner of half of Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre, claiming nearly $20 million in owed rent.