In hindsight it looks as though Woolworths paid a hefty price for David Jones just as a tsunami of change was about to hit global retail markets.Sadly for Woolworths’ shareholders, in the years leading up to the 2014 acquisition, few had any appreciation of just how much change was coming their way. This meant there would have been no chance of getting the Australian retail group at a knockdown bargain price. Even when Woolworths went after the minority stake in Country Road a short while later, it was forced to pay a premium price by shareholder activist Lew Solomon. Excitement about diversifying earnings outside SA resulted in the share price moving above R100 after the deal, peaking at R104 in November 2015. From there, it has drifted steadily back to R64, where it was before the David Jones acquisition. Analysts seem unperturbed by events of the past 12 or so months and appear confident the group is in the right hands. "They’re doing as well as can be expected," said one analyst...
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