Woolworths have announced this morning that the David Jones board plan to give themselves and their shareholders a couple more weeks to decide, the meeting will now take place on the 14th of July. Why? Well, actually it is more about Australian regulators being sensible. "The Federal Court of Australia has granted this postponement to allow sufficient time for the David Jones Board to assess the implications of entities associated with Solomon Lew holding 9.89% of David Jones shares."
What I guess is important for you and I is that in the eyes of Woolworths, this does not change the fact that the David Jones Board are unanimously recommending the Woolworths bid to their shareholders. Because of course their is not a superior bid from any other party currently. So we might well see the same outcome, Michael did say that it gave Lew two more weeks to hoover up more David Jones shares, I agreed with that, but whether or not it makes sense for Lew, that is another story entirely.
Let us say that Woolworths walk away, David Jones would go back to 3.20 Aussie, a fall of 70 odd cents a share, and then Lew would be stuck with all those shares. Posturing with real money, egos and agendas, we just hope that Woolworths are sensible here, but I am pretty sure that they are. Wait and see, that is the best route, David Jones shareholders will vote accordingly.