The heads of David Jones and clothes retailer Country Road now will both report directly to Woolworths Chief Executive Officer Ian Moir, the Cape Town-based company said in a statement Tuesday, citing a review of costs.
Woolworths bought the David Jones department-store chain for about $2 billion in 2014. It announced the writedown in January, saying a downturn in the Australian retailer sector and poor or delayed execution of some company initiatives had reduced the value.
The shares were little changed at R59.88 as of 11:27 a.m. in Johannesburg, valuing the company at R63 billion ($5 billion).