Performance Sports Group pays CEO in salary instead of stock

Stock rebounds despite new agreement

Investor confidence in Performance Sports Group, LTD seems to be growing, despite the Exeter-based sports equipment supplier release last week of a new agreement to pay its CEO in salary rather than stock.

The board of directors of the troubled company doubled CEO Harlan Kent’s annual based salary to $1.5 million on September 16, retroactive to August 1, replacing the initial awards of stock options and restricted promised when it hired him in June. The company disclosed this on a filing on Thursday.

The company had awarded Kent an initial grant of 307,692 restricted stock units and a stock option to purchase 615,385 in agreement to go into effect on June 20 when the stock was trading for $3.  The price of the stock had taken a tumble from a high of $15 in the wake of revenue declines, losses and large write-offs.

On August 15, the stock plummeted to under $2 after PSG announced a delayed financial filing that would have triggered a default on hundreds of millions in loans if the company did not reach a 60-day reprieve from its creditors. Later the company disclosed investigations by securities regulators in the U.S. and Canada and class action suit against the company and Kent’s predecessors, CEO Kevin Davis and interim CEO and former CFO Amir Rosenthal.

But at the end of August, PSG got a 60-extension deal with its creditors and the price for share has bounced back. It was trading for about $4 today.