Myer IPO

Myer, Australia's largest department store retailer plans to float on the Australian Securities Exchange in November. It is considered to be Australia's second largest IPO in two years and considered to demonstrate a rebound in IPOs in the region. The Financial Times, Bloomberg and The Sydney Morning Herald(SMH) both reported on the news in varying ways however they were all written by journalists based from Sydney or Melbourne.

Myer CEO Bernie Brookes and Myer ambassador, former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, launch the Myer prospectus. Picture: AFP / William West

The Financial Times reports the article briefly and concise stating the financial facts of the IPO such as, in the headline 'Myer aims for A$2.8bn...' the expected equity market value of the company, the gross proceeds from the sale, price of the shares and the net profit after tax. It can be assumed the length of the article and lack of detail is due to its publication in The Financial Times UK. The IPO of one of Australia's largest retail stores could be considered to be of minor interest to UK or European investors but it would be a different case if it was targeted for Australian institutional investors or retail investors.

The article in Bloomberg.com does take a different stance to the IPO sale. With a headline reading 'TPG, Blum to Sell Myer Stakes...' the article does focus on the sellers and the justification for the sale rather than just the cut and bone financial facts. Whitley also mentions some detail of the managers of the IPO and making frequent reference to what 'the prospectus said'. This highlights the importance of the prospectus in IPO's and the information that is available to the media to report the story. The significant difference between the Bloomberg.com and the later mention SMH story is that there are interviews with other members in the financial sector such as Prasad Patkar from Platypus Asset Management and Sean Fenton from Tribeca Investment Partners, who are institutional investors. Their opinions are relevant to the target audience and likely influence other institutional investors.

Therefore, there is a contrast to the information provided and the detail in the SMH article 'Prospectus out: Myer Prices Shares'. The Greenblat article is a significantly longer article. It reports the same information in the Financial Times however there is more information relating to who appears on the front cover of the prospectus, the history of the company, the private equity owners TPG and Blum Capital and more importantly the future prospects of the company. Upon reading the article the first time the information provided is very useful for information on the Myer share sale. Though after repeated analysis and comparing this article to Financial Times UK it could give the impression that the article is used to promote the sale of the shares of the company to SMH readers, most likely retail investors. This can be evidenced by comments such as 'this would help place Myer in a strong financial position going forward', followed by statements from the Myer chairman, future store openings and the offer dates for investors. However, the target audience of the SMH must be considered before making rash statements. Myer is an Australia company and it would be necessary to inform Australian investors of such a significant sale. The information provided was not biased with evidence that supported future prospects and earnings potential of the company.

For an IPO it is necessary to inform investors of the future earnings potential of the business to garner the interest and investment from potential investors. The three articles were able to target three different audiences the general investor, the institutional investor and the retail investor and give information that was relevant for each type of reader. However, more reference for readers to view the prospectus at the end of each story would enable the investor to perform their own due diligence.