Anger over the winding-up of Masters

The winding-up of the Australian DIY chain Masters has exposed considerable differences between the former joint venture partners, the American DIY store operator Lowe's and the Australian retail group Woolworths. Lowe's has now filed a motion requesting that the Federal Court of Australia appoint a liquidator to oversee the equitable and orderly wind-up of the Masters joint venture vehicle, Hydrox Holdings, as part of a liquidation process initiated by Woolworths. Lowe's also alleges that Woolworths has conducted the affairs of Hydrox in a manner oppressive and unfairly prejudicial to Lowe's, including by wrongfully and in bad faith seeking to terminate its joint venture agreement and by seeking to exclude Lowe's from the management of Hydrox. At any rate, this is how Lowe's presents the case in a press release.
In this, it also says that, as previously announced, Lowe's notified Woolworths on 15 January 2016 of its intent to exercise its put option held under the joint venture arrangement. Woolworths is contractually obligated to pay Lowe's the fair value of its ownership stake as of 18 January 2016, and has disclosed this to the market.