By Patrick Avenell
JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Uechtritz has spoken about reports in today’s Financial Review that Woolworths was planning on buying the electrical retailer.
“It’s been the same for every journalist who’s called today,” said Uechtritz. “We can’t comment on that.”
When asked how interested the press had been with today’s reports, Uechtritz told Current.com.au that enquiries into the future of JB Hi-Fi are not restricted to periods of takeover speculation.
“Even when it’s not in the paper we get the calls – from analysts and fund managers – we can’t comment,” he said. “I’ve had a number of calls today, it [newspaper coverage] doesn’t go unnoticed. The media should be more aware of this.”
Going into further detail about takeover enquiries and media speculation, Uechtritz said, “We’re an attractive company to many companies out there, we’re the sixth biggest [retail] company, bigger than David Jones, there are only two companies that able to [buy JB Hi-Fi].
According to the Financial Review article that sparked this media frenzy around Uechtritz, buying JB Hi-Fi has been an attractive proposition for a long time.