“This is probably the largest proxy fight in history, even more so than
Shareholders of the T-shirt manufacturer voted to place Chamandy back on its board alongside a slate of candidates put forward by activist investors on Tuesday, capping a months-long leadership battle.
The election marks another vote of confidence for the company co-founder, who retook the helm Friday after being ousted from the top job in December amid accusations he was no longer fit to lead the firm.
Chamandy told reporters in
“I was a little saddened, I would say, by the way I think the board handled the succession — and handled me personally," he said.
Activist shareholder
In a shock move last week, Tyra and Gildan's board stepped down after counting shareholder votes cast ahead of the annual general meeting, paving the way for Chamandy's return and for Browning West's cast of directors to be elected.
The
"This board was very entrenched and I think was very abusive to shareholders’ money,” he said of the departing directors. They had called his commitment and growth plans into question, saying in January he had "no credible long-term strategy and no vision for the future," a position Chamandy rejected.
Roughly
“They actually got the money for their severance and then left the company subsequently a couple days later, which is really strange,” he said. “From our view, it’s not very clean.”
Nonetheless, Chamandy suggested legal recourse is unlikely: “We’re putting this behind us.”
Meanwhile, the new board slate received “overwhelming support” from shareholders, the CEO said. The precise tally is expected by Wednesday morning.
Leading proxy firms
Gildan had previously replaced five directors in April and said it would back two nominees by Browning West, which owns about five per cent of the company.
Browning West co-founder
“Overall, justice has prevailed,” Chamandy told reporters. “The shareholders have spoken. This is a new beginning for Gildan.”
No sooner did he step back into the C-suite than questions of succession arose, given the tortuous saga of the past half-year.
“I’ve got a lot of energy. I’m in my early 60s, which is early 50s in the future," he said.
While Chamandy declined to speculate on when he might step down, chairman
Chamandy also threw cold water on the idea of a sale of the clothing maker, which the previous board announced barely two months ago. The chief executive pointed to Gildan's ability as a publicly traded company to raise billions of dollars in capital for investment in garment factories.
“Private equity comes in and they buy the company and they put
Chamandy said he is still weighing whether to go ahead with a
At the annual meeting in downtown
Asked about complaints from factory workers, Chamandy stood by the company’s practices, saying that most facilities are unionized and subject to periodic audits from monitoring and certification programs such as Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production. He also claimed high worker satisfaction among Gildan’s 44,000 employees and highlighted the whistleblower lines available to them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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