Myer investors deserve their moment in the sun - buoyed by some good news from the company and they would be overjoyed by the 20 per cent plus rise in the share price.

The improved profit performance announced by Flight Centre on Monday is further demonstration that consumers are eager to spend money on discretionary goods and services.

Loading

The promising aspect to Myer’s announcement is that King was also optimistic about trading in the current six months, saying that the department store group profits and balance sheet “places us well to go into the new financial year”.

Analysts are generally less enthusiastic about the prospects for retail spending for the remainder of the calendar year and wonder whether the unusually buoyant June 2022 half (in Myer’s case July 22) period is sustainable. (And anecdotally some apparel retailers have been saying July spending had softened a little.)

It is an understandable sentiment from analysts, given consumer confidence is diabolically low (albeit marginally improved over the past two weeks) and mortgage holders are about to be hit with another round of rate hikes, having already absorbed three in as many months.

But for now, Myer investors deserve their moment in the sun - buoyed by some good news from the company, and they would be overjoyed by the 20 per cent plus rise in the share price.

What remains in store longer term for Myer is the ongoing uncertainty around ownership and governance.

Lew, who has a 20 per cent stake in the retailer, is not inclined to call to ceasefire in his long-term ambition to replace Myer’s board with directors he feels have the experience to extract a better performance from the company.

As a shareholder Lew should be delighted that his stake was 20 per cent more valuable on Tuesday than it was on Monday. However, as a governance grenade-thrower and a potential predator, a better performing Myer does him no favours.

To the extent that Lew has a grand plan around Myer and its department store rival David Jones, he is playing his cards close to his chest.

In recent months he is understood to have taken a peek at David Jones, when there was talk that its South African owners were assessing the market - but Lew is said not to have placed an offer on the table.

There is also a school of thought that says Lew wants to ultimately get control of both department store operators, restructure and ultimately merge them.

Now that would be a revival gig worthy of more than just guitars and tambourines.