Small retailer Adrenalina Group of Miami is launching a board fight at Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. after its earlier bids to buy the struggling surf-inspired mall store chain were rebuffed.
Adrenalina said Thursday it plans to nominated four as yet undisclosed candidates to sit on Pacific Sunwear’s board.
The news helped lift Pacific Sunwear shares as much as 20% Thursday before closing up 11% on a market value of about $100 million.
Adrenalina, which owns some 2 million Pacific Sunwear shares, said its board bid is in the best interest of Pacific Sunwear.
“We urge the board to voluntarily agree to add our representatives now so that we can work immediately to restore shareholder value before it is too late,” Adrenalina Chief Executive Ilia Lekach wrote in a letter to Pacific Sunwear chief Sally Frame Kasaks.
Lekach went on to blame Kasaks for Pacific Sunwear’s deteriorating stock value and called for her immediate resignation.
“We cannot afford, nor can your shareholders afford, to sit idly by while the company, under your command, continues to destroy shareholder value and cause its very existence to be threatened,” Lekach wrote.
Lekach said he has been in talks with Pacific Sunwear’s largest institutional shareholders and that they share his “grave concerns about the company’s current condition.”
“They support our plan,” he wrote.
Calls to Pacific Sunwear were not immediately returned.
Pacific Sunwear’s shares are down about 90% in the past year as the chain struggles with slumping sales.
Adrenalina, which runs three stores selling action sport inspired clothes and gear, made a second, higher $329 million offer to buy Pacific Sunwear in October.
Pacific Sunwear rejected the offer, saying it wasn’t in the best interest of shareholders.
Adrenalina later withdrew its offer in December but said it would continue to seek a buyout.
Some analysts have downplayed the Adrenalina offer, questioning whether the company has the financing to pull off an acquisition.
