Browning West requests shareholders meeting to replace majority of Gildan board

MONTREAL U.S. investment firm Browning West has requested a special meeting of Gildan Activewear Inc. shareholders to replace a majority of the company's directors and reinstate Glenn Chamandy as chief executive. The firm, which owns a five per cent stake in Gildan, wants to replace eight of the company's 11 board members including chair Donald Berg, up from an earlier plan to replace five directors.

It says the expanded slate comes after it learned the current board would not consider the reinstatement of Chamandy as CEO and was committed to appointing former Fruit of the Loom executive Vincent Tyra as CEO. Browning West isn't alone in its calls to reinstate Chamandy. Jarislowsky Fraser, Gildan's largest shareholder, as well as others have also sought his return to the company.

The escalation in the fight over control of the company by Browning West comes after the Gildan board wrote a letter to shareholders in which it said Chamandy had no credible long term strategy for the company and had lost the board's trust and confidence in his ability to grow an increasingly complex organization.

In response, Chamandy wrote his own letter in which he said he presented a comprehensive long range plan in October that showed meaningful organic growth prospects for Gildan over the next five years. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GIL).