Harvey Norman could delist from the ASX in coming decades but some claim that management he is already talking to private equity firms about a potential sale. Executive chairman Gerry Harvey hates accountability and questions about his business by the likes of the Australian Shareholders Association who have questioned him several times at his AGM’s. Earlier today he bemoaned the climbing costs associated with continuous disclosure obligations required of an ASX-listed company and said the retail giant he co-founded would most likely not exist in its current form in the next two decades.
His comments came after Harvey Norman recorded a 4 per cent slide in revenue to $4.1 billion and a 35 per cent drop in net profit to $352.5 million.
“I don’t think we’ll be a public company 10 or 20 years from now. I think that we’ll be owned by private equity or privatisation,” Harvey said. “Exactly what, I don’t know .
.. It’s a case of, you’ve got to move with the times.
” He said the company had always had conversations with private equity in the past 50 years and he said he was “sure” a takeover would happen. “I’ve got no doubt it’ll eventuate.” ChannelNews understands that the latest talks took place this year with the 84 year old Chairman appearing to be getting ready to move on from a business that that has dominated the appliance furniture and consumer electronics landscape for several decades.
Harvey said it had sold less product but that its market s.