Solomon Lew is an Australian businessman born on March 22, 1945, in Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia. He is the son of Esther Windman and Pinkus Lew (originally Lewkowicz), Polish Jews from Częstochowa who immigrated to Australia during the Interwar period. His father was active in Melbourne’s Jewish community and was vice-president of a landsmanshaft for Częstochowa Jews. He established a textiles business in Flinders Lane but died when his son was 12 years old.
Lew was educated at Mount Scopus Memorial College. He established his first business, Voyager Solo, at the age of 18. He studied accounting and commerce at night school. His principal commercial activities involve importing apparel, toys, and other goods into Australia from China and investments, mainly in retail companies.
As a teenager, Lew supplied dresses to the Myer Emporium in Melbourne using his company Voyager Solo. In 2014 Lew built a ten percent stake in David Jones Limited after South African retailer Woolworths launched a takeover bid for the department store. Lew was formerly a director and then chairman of Coles Myer (now known as the Coles Group) until voted out by shareholders.
He was also involved in an 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, Premier Investments, and became its chairman. In 2016 he became the first Australian to be inducted into the World Retail Hall of Fame, which recognizes the lifetime achievements of retail “legends”.
In 1981, Lew’s family office Parfit Investments Pty Ltd made a takeover bid for John Martin & Co., an Adelaide-based department store chain. The following year, another of Lew’s firms Specular Investments Pty Ltd made an unsuccessful bid for eyewear retailer OPSM. By 1983 Lew and controlled entities had obtained close to a 10 percent stake in Myer Emporium Ltd. In the same year, he proposed a A$50 million takeover bid for the Australian branch of Cadbury Schweppes.
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. 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 A$18 million, and the recovery made by Coles Myer was in excess of A$12 million.” Lew contributed to this 1996 settlement with Coles-Myer. Cameron also said that it was “clearly true” that Lew was not guilty of any breaches of the law. When asked if he believed Lew was innocent, 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.”
When Coles Myer’s chief financial officer, Philip Bowman, resigned and revealed the details of the transaction it brought a great deal of unwanted public attention to Lew. Bowman’s revelations prompted an investigation into whether the Yannon transaction broke the Corporations Law or other laws that lasted five years and gathered a quarter of a million pages of documents and twelve thousand pages of evidence.
The ASIC recommended criminal prosecution against Lew in its brief, although the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who had the final decision, decided not to proceed with criminal charges against Lew, Lew’s advisers, or those working within Coles Myer. The Chairman of ASIC told the ABC: “I think where the community would have had concern is if the community had felt that a transaction was beyond investigation in some way. This transaction was not beyond investigation.”
Another controversial business transaction involving Lew related to a single-purpose trust called Etiket. The beneficiaries were Lew’s family. The trust was used to acquire 2% of Coles Myer in 1989, at a time of high interest rates. Lew offered competing explanations for what happened next. But the end result was that the Coles Myer shares were assigned to Premier Investments for an A$8 million profit. A Queen’s Counsel who investigated the transaction said: Well, he very simply bought them for $8.20. There was no substantial movement in the share price, but he sold them to Premier for $9.00. He made 80 cents a share, or $8 million, in four weeks.
Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox formed a consortium to acquire Ansett Airlines after it had an Administrator appointed. They sought and obtained the exclusive right to negotiate to purchase the airline. They obtained the agreement of various stakeholders in the airline, including trade union members and their representatives.
Greg Combet, the secretary of the ACTU said Lew had breached ‘repeated commitments’. During this time spent negotiating, the administrators had been persuaded to continue to operate the airline despite heavy losses which reduced the amount ultimately available to creditors, which included employees owed entitlements.
Lew and Fox had committed to take on A$183 million of these entitlement obligations if they acquired the company. These commitments and their statements that they could and would proceed with the acquisition led the trade unions with members involved in the business to support the bid. The consequence of Lew’s withdrawal was much embarrassment for the ACTU, which had strongly supported the Lew-Fox bid.
In September 2002, a resolution to remove Lew from the Board of Coles Myer was successful after Stan Wallis, the Chairman of the company, campaigned for Lew’s removal. Wallis successfully lobbied major institutional shareholders, including insurance companies, banks and large investment firms to take the rare action of voting against an incumbent director. Prior to the vote, Lew campaigned heavily spending an estimated A$10 million campaigning for his re-election focusing mainly on smaller shareholders. He was successful in obtaining millions of proxies but they were ultimately insufficient.
In March 2008, Lew returned to the public company stage, rejoining the board of the listed company Premier Investments, as its chairman. At the same time, Premier announced a takeover offer for Just Group, one of Australia’s largest retailers which own Just Jeans, Portmans, Dotti, Peter Alexander, Jay Jays, Smiggle and Jacqui E. Analysts criticized the offer for being too low and comprising less than half in cash. In publicly explaining his offer, Solomon Lew said Just Group was trading worse than had been disclosed to the investment community.
Premier’s stationery brand Smiggle was profitable in its first year in the United Kingdom after launching in 2015. The brand was subsequently launched in Hong Kong and Malaysia in 2016. Smiggle’s first global flagship store was opened on London’s Oxford Street in 2018, along with the first concession outlet in department store Selfridges.
Wife
Solomon Lew was married to his first wife Rosie Lew until divorcing in 2014. The couple had three children, Peter, Jacqueline and Steven.
Solomon Lew net worth
How much is Solomon Lew worth? Solomon Lew net worth is estimated at around $2 billion. His main source of income is from his primary work as a businessman. Solomon Lew’s salary per month and other career earnings are over $50 million dollars annually. His remarkable achievements have earned him some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. He is one of the richest and most influential businessmen in Australia. He stands at an appealing height of 1.81m and has a good body weight which suits his personality.