Barington Group buys substantial stake in apparel company
21 Aug '06
2 min read
The Barington Group has filed a Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that it now collectively holds approximately 5.6% of the common stock of The Warnaco Group Inc, a New York based apparel company that owns and licenses a portfolio of highly recognized brand names, including Speedo, Calvin Klein, Chaps, Nautica, JLO and Ocean Pacific.
The Barington Group ('Barington') consists of Barington Capital Group LP, Ramius Capital Group, LLC and various other affiliated entities.
In its Schedule 13D filing with the SEC, Barington stated that it believes Warnaco to be undervalued and that it wishes to engage in discussions with the company's senior management concerning measures that it believes will improve shareholder value for the benefit of the company's stockholders.
In its filing, Barington said such measures include, but are not limited to:
-- the improvement in execution by the company's senior management team and oversight provided by its Board of Directors in light of what Barington believes to be a string of recent operating disappointments stemming from (a) the recently announced financial restatement caused by accounting issues at the company's Chaps division and swimwear segment, and the resulting Securities and Exchange Commission informal inquiry, (b) disruptions and excess costs associated with poor implementation of SAP at the company's swimwear segment, and (c) missed revenue growth and gross margintargets;