Officers at Gildan Activewear Inc., which is embroiled in a bitter dispute with former CEO Glenn Chamandy, have begun digging by his emails to again up the board’s declare he was a “disengaged” government.
Administrators on the Canadian clothes producer try to make the case they had been justified in firing the longtime chief government officer in December. Amongst different issues, they’ve accused him of making an attempt to pursue high-risk acquisitions and turning into distracted by private initiatives, reminiscent of a golf course in Barbados.
“Gildan has now learned that Mr. Chamandy sent on average no more than a handful of work emails a day and had few business-related meetings diarized on his calendar,” the corporate mentioned in a press release late Tuesday.
For the previous month, Gildan administrators have been concerned in an more and more hostile and public combat with Chamandy and quite a few main shareholders who assist him, need him again as CEO and are in search of modifications to the board.
The dissident investor group is led by Los Angeles-based Browning West LP, which owns about 5% of Gildan’s shares and final week requested a shareholder assembly to vote in a brand new board. Gildan has but to publicly reply to that request. Up to now, 9 shareholders holding greater than a 3rd of Gildan’s inventory have brazenly backed Chamandy’s return.
Learn Extra: Gildan Board Says Fired CEO Chamandy Was Distracted by Deals, Golf Resort
On Tuesday, the corporate additionally mentioned Chamandy positioned his personal cash into funds managed by one of many funding corporations that’s now lobbying to carry him again as CEO. It didn’t identify the agency, however an individual aware of the matter mentioned it’s not Browning West.
Chamandy “seems to have a close relationship” with Browning West, the corporate mentioned. The CEO hosted an “exclusive” go to to Gildan’s manufacturing plant in Honduras on Nov. 8 for Browning West co-founders Usman Nabi and Peter Lee, it mentioned.
Later in November, Chamandy despatched the board an “ultimatum” to approve a multibillion-dollar acquisition, which the board rejected, in response to the corporate’s model of occasions. Chamandy’s departure was introduced on Dec. 11.
In a press release Wednesday, Chamandy struck again, saying that the board is making an attempt to undermine him primarily based on “insinuation and distortion of the truth.” Gildan’s newest launch “continues to reflect an approach that is misguided, misleading, and value-destructive, prioritizing the obsession of board members with their own reputations above all else,” he added.
Gildan’s market capitalization has declined by greater than C$1 billion to C$7.2 billion ($5.3 billion) since Chamandy’s dismissal.
“The board’s increasingly desperate messages in the face of unprecedented shareholder backlash are failing to divert attention away from substantive shareholder concerns,” Browning West mentioned in a press release emailed by an outdoor spokesperson. “It has likely become clear to all shareholders that the board is much more focused on self-preservation than accepting shareholders’ views and creating value.”
Vince Tyra, a former Fruit of the Loom government, began as Gildan’s CEO on Monday. Gildan, headquartered in Montreal, owns the American Attire model.
