But the split between Lew and Murray is said to have come about as they mutually reached a conclusion that the types of skills required to run a (mostly) apparel, vertically integrated retail conglomerate like Premier are different to those needed for JB Hi-Fi - which sells a range of brands from different manufacturers.

And the good news for Lew is that if this four-way split is successfully executed, Premier won’t need to replace Murray with a new hotshot retail executive. Instead, he will need a strong finance person and John Bryce, who is the company’s long-standing chief financial officer, is made to order for that role.

The Murray experiment will be enough to ensure the executives that currently and successfully run Smiggle and Peter Alexander – John Cheston and Judy Coomber respectively – will head the businesses if they are liberated from the Premier conglomerate.

It is easy to see why Premier would wish to separate its growing Peter Alexander and Smiggle brands. They are the two businesses with an international flavour and an active growth profile.

But there will be question marks on why they could not remain together.

The financial theory behind liberating assets like these brands is that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole and the break-up should create value. However, the risk, particularly for the older and lower-growth apparel brands, is that the business that houses them may be too small to attract investors.

The largest of the stand-alone brands is Peter Alexander, which is valued at roughly twice that of Smiggle, which in turn is twice the value of the remainder of the consolidated brands, according to analysts.

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Premier has two large investments – one in Breville and the other in Myer. And the smart money is betting Lew will increase Premier’s stake in Myer to 29 per cent.

Such a move would give Lew unassailable control of the department-store group, and the biggest seat at the table in deciding who will replace its departing chief executive John King.

And he is sure to be hatching plans about how to deal with Myer.

The question for down the track is whether Lew will retain his investment in all the four companies that could be created from the demerger. While Lew has earned his stripes as a retailer over the past 60 years, he is also a retail asset trader of some renown and the market is betting he knows what he is doing.

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