Solomon Lew
| Solomon Lew | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
22 March 1945 Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia |
| Residence | Toorak, Melbourne, Australia |
| Education | Mount Scopus Memorial College |
| Occupation | chairman of Premier Investments |
| Net worth |
 US$1.2 billion (March 2013) |
| Spouse(s) | Rose Lew (separated) |
| Children |
Peter Lew Steven Lew Jacqueline Lew |
Solomon Lew (born 22 March 1945) is an Australian businessman, and one of Australia's richest men. His principal commercial activities involve importing apparel, toys and other goods into Australia from China and share market investments, principally in retail companies.
He was formerly a director then Chairman of the board for Coles Myer (now known as the Coles Group) until voted out by shareholders after a series of controversies related to his private dealings with the company. He was also involved in an unsuccessful attempt to resurrect Ansett airlines with Lindsay Fox following its collapse in September 2001. In 2008 he returned to the board of his public company vehicle Premier Investments and became its chairman.
He owns Solomon Carpet Store Chains in Australia
While Chairman of Coles Myer, Lew involved Coles Myer in a deal with a private company Yannon Pty Ltd which ultimately lost Coles Myer A$18 million. The money was used to help fund a company of Lew's called Premier Investments which in turn owned shares in Coles Myer. The money was used to help meet Lew's debt servicing obligations to banks, which were high due to his high level of indebtedness and high interest rates at the time. An internal Coles investigation endorsed Lew's claim that he knew nothing of the deal, and a subsequent four-year investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ended with no charges being pursued.
Alan Cameron, ASIC chairman at the time, acknowledged during the press conference to announce the outcome of the investigation that: "It is worth saying that the original loss suffered by Coles Myer was about $18 million, and the recovery made by Coles Myer was in excess of $12 million." Mr Lew contributed to this 1996 settlement with Coles-Myer.
Cameron also said that it was "clearly true" that Mr Lew was not guilty of any breaches of the law. When asked if he believed Mr Lew was innocent, Mr Cameron replied: "of course."
ABC Radio's PM program described the transaction:
"The Yannon deal was an undisclosed indemnity given by Coles-Myer to a shelf company called Yannon set up by CS First Boston. It bought shares in a company called Premier, a major shareholder in Coles-Myer controlled by then Executive Chair of Coles, Solomon Lew. It guaranteed Yannon against any losses in the share deal, eventually costing Coles $18 million. Coles retrieved $12 million in a later agreement between itself, Mr Lew and with other parties. The funding of the buying of its own shares, the apparent involvement of the chairman and the lack of disclosure raised serious governance issues for Coles-Myer, and ended with the replacement of almost the entire board of directors and the withdrawal of significant shareholder support."
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Wikipedia