Endeavour's D-Day finally arrives

It has been five years in the making. Shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the demerger of Endeavour Group from the Woolworths Group.

More than ninety-eight per cent of shareholders voted in the affirmative and the demerger is unanimously supported by the Woolworth board as the best opportunity for growth. Shareholders will receive a share for every Woolworths share they own.

Chairman, Steve Cairn said of Endeavour that "as a standalone company they will not be constrained to seek opportunities for growth."

The Endeavour Group Board will be chaired by Peter Hearl with Steve Donohue as CEO and recently appointed Shane McGowan as Chief Financial Officer.

Endeavour Group merged with ALH, the hotel and gaming business, in February 2020 before plans to demerge from Woolworths were put on hold. With the demerger now approved, Endeavour is expected to be one of the 50 largest ASX-listed companies when it starts trading alone on 24 June.

The Woolworths Group has 14.6 per cent stake in Endeavour Group along with the Bruce Mathieson group and Endeavour and Woolworths will continue to partner across supply chain, information technology, customer loyalty and digital innovation.

Endeavour Group employs more than 28,000 people and its portfolio of brands includes Dan Murphy’s and BWS, the nation’s largest portfolio of licensed hospitality venues, with 1,962 stores and venues across Australia. ALH, owns 12,000 electronic gaming (poker) machines across 330 hotels, including 52 hotels and 1390 poker machines in NSW. Cairns restated at the AGM that revenue from gaming sits at around $700 million annually.

Endeavour Drinks is expected to be worth about $12 billion.