LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ENA Investment Capital (“ENA”), a long-term, value-oriented investment firm and the second-largest shareholder in Ontex Group NV (“Ontex” or the “Company”) owning c.15% of the Company’s outstanding shares, today issued the following statement.
ENA Investment Capital would like to congratulate Gustavo Paz on his election as CEO of Ontex. We would also like to thank sincerely the Ontex Board, GBL and the other Ontex shareholders for their vote of confidence in Gustavo.
Gustavo is a fantastic, hands-on operator and a true strategic thinker. His knowledge of the business (particularly Ontex’s turnaround potential), his track record, and his understanding of the competitive landscape is unparalleled and combine to make him an exceptional candidate to guide the company. We have the utmost confidence in his abilities as a manager and a leader. Finally, the US business and its profitability (which is a key pillar of the Ontex turnaround story) will benefit substantially from his insight in that geography.
Gustavo has been a key operating partner of ours for a number of years now and we are extremely happy for him on the achievement of this important milestone.
We would also like to highlight the fact that as a result of this promotion, we have officially ended our formal engagement with Gustavo. We consider it best that he devotes 100% of his time to his new role and more importantly there is never any question about his independence, impartiality and treatment of all shareholders and stakeholders equally. Though we will miss him, we look forward to benefiting from his hard work as Ontex’s second largest equity shareholder.
Concluding: with Gustavo as CEO, we are confident that Ontex is in the strongest possible position to turnaround and grow its business and thus to explore any discussions with disclosed (as well as any other) interested 3rd parties about potential corporate actions. He is the right person–with the relevant track record and bandwidth—to evaluate such transactions, as well as to lead any corporate action that might evolve from such discussions.
We believe that with him at the helm, Ontex has a very bright future indeed. And for our part, we remain 100% committed to our investment, and we believe there are significant value creation and savings opportunities ahead, with several paths to recovery of the share price to at least the mid-cycle value potential over the next 14 months.
We wish him and the executive team well as they embark upon this challenge.
Very Kind Regards,
ENA Investment Capital