John Walden could be forgiven for feeling a little smug. The former chief executive of Home Retail Group played a blinder for shareholders when he offloaded the struggling Homebase DIY chain to Wesfarmers for nearly £400 million in 2016.
Homebase was operating in a furiously competitive market and needed substantial funds to revive it, which its parent company wouldn’t commit as it was too busy transforming Argos, its other business, from a catalogue retailer into an online operator. So when Wesfarmers, of Australia, and its Bunnings DIY chain came calling with an unsolicited offer, Mr Walden jumped at it.
Then he sat back and watched the Australians implode. Less than two and a half years after the deal and a failed attempt to reproduce a