Mr Lew, whose Premier Investments is Myer's largest shareholder with 10.8 per cent of the stock, has called on investors to vote against all resolutions the company puts forward to protest the department store's poor performance and languishing share price.

That includes trying to reject the election of Myer's incoming chairman Garry Hounsell, whom Premier has painted as a liar during the acrimonious three-month war of words.

But influential proxy advisers CGI Glass Lewis and Ownership Matters have recommended that their institutional investor clients back Myer's board despite its poor performance. The Australian Shareholders' Association is also directing its votes in favour of all resolutions.

CGI Glass Lewis general manager Daniel Smith said the meeting would reveal just how much opposition there was outside the vocal Premier camp.

"It would be interesting to see the split between retail shareholders who might be more amenable to the emotive appeals of Mr Lew, as opposed to the [institutional investors] and [fund managers], who might be a little bit more sceptical that Solly Lew would be able to deliver," Mr Smith said.

"Certainly, there's a legitimate cause of concern from those shareholders who've held on for dear life since the company's share price was trading at over $4 a share."

The stock closed at 71?? on Thursday, and has fallen more than 40 per cent during the past year.

But Mr Smith said Mr Lew would need to give more detail of how he intended to improve Myer's performance to win the support of professional investors.

"They'd want to see a road map as to where he'd take the company before giving him the keys," Mr Smith said.

So far, Premier has outlined only a broad plan to improve Myer: appoint directors with more retail experience and fire its consultants, stock products shoppers want, improve service, close underperforming stores more quickly, ditch its clearance strategy and set up a better online store.

Premier has put up two nominee directors and an independent director with expertise in retail, banking and property. But Myer says there is a conflict of interest giving Premier board seats because it and other companies linked to Mr Lew are major suppliers to and competitors of Myer.

Investors Mutual Limited founder Anton Tagliaferro, whose fund holds 9.8 per cent of Myer's shares, on Thursday said he thought Myer would emerge victorious.

"I think some shareholders may vote for him [Mr Lew], but given all the corporate governance guys have come out against him it will be difficult for his votes to get up," he said.

Mr Lew's best chance of a symbolic victory is to achieve a "first strike" against Myer by getting a 25 per cent protest vote against its remuneration report.

Whatever the outcome, Premier could still call an extraordinary general meeting, where it is thought Mr Lew would call for the removal of all of Myer's directors.

Although Premier could call an EGM within weeks, a snap meeting before Christmas would collide with Myer and Premier's busiest trading period, and be in a period when many of the fund managers whose support it would need will be on holiday.

Pushing the meeting to early next year places it tantalisingly close to Myer's first-half earnings March. If those numbers disappoint investors, they could provide powerful ammunition for Premier when it tries to garner support to dismiss the board.

Mr Tagliaferro said he doubted Mr Lew would call an EGM, as widely expected, because he would certainly be defeated there as well.

That would leave Myer to continue with its turnaround and Mr Lew able to contribute to the board his ideas to accelerate that recovery.

"The Myer board is very willing to hear from 10 per cent shareholders, as long as there's no gun pointed to their head," Mr Tagliaferro said.

Premier will be represented in force on Friday, with tough questions expected to be directed at the board. But all eyes will be on whether Mr Lew makes an appearance himself.