Two days after Gildan accused Los Angeles investment firm Browning West of peddling a misleading story about its CEO in a New York daily, the dissident shareholder accuses the Montreal clothing maker of stimulating a ” shameless publicity stunt” in an English-speaking daily.
This salvo from Browning West is provoked by an article in the Globe & Mail reporting that Gildan claims the U.S. shareholder violated a section of U.S. law prohibiting making false or misleading statements when buying or selling securities.
The false or misleading statements in question refer to the interpretation of the nature of a relationship that Gildan’s new CEO, Vince Tyra, had with an employee reporting directly to him when he ran another company a year ago. twenty years. This woman now holds a management position at Gildan.
Vince Tyra’s romance with this woman was featured in the news earlier this week in the New York Post. Gildan called the report a “reprehensible attack by Browning West as part of an activism campaign supported by Glenn Chamandy,” which Browning West and former CEO Glenn Chamandy strongly denied Wednesday.
In response to the report from New York PostGildan explained that Vince Tyra dated a co-worker for less than three months 22 years ago while he was separated and she was divorced.
Browning West has been scrambling to reconstitute Gildan’s board of directors since the December firing of Glenn Chamandy, who had been Gildan’s CEO for 20 years. The dismissal sparked a power struggle ahead of the shareholders’ meeting scheduled for the end of May.
In a statement released Friday, Browning West said it was regrettable that Gildan’s board of directors was acting in a “desperate and unpredictable manner.”
“Rather than sending an error-ridden letter to U.S. regulators to spur a shameless publicity stunt in a Canadian newspaper, the board should work with us on the nomination of our independent, highly qualified director candidates. »
Browning West adds that shareholders are fed up with the board’s “bizarre and unnecessary” campaign and accuses the Gildan board of resorting to “low-level tactics.”
Browning West said Wednesday that legal action would be taken against any party claiming that the Los Angeles investment firm was behind the report published by the New York Post.