(Reuters) -The Restaurant Group’s shareholder Oasis Management, on Thursday, went public with its call for the owner of the Wagamama restaurant chain to “re-align its priorities” and take immediate steps to restore market confidence.
The hedge fund, which manages private funds that own 6.5% of the company, said it wanted The Restaurant Group to engage with its shareholders to explore all options for a management change in the near term.
Shares of TRG, still reeling from the effects of pandemic and dealing with rising energy costs, had lost about two-thirds of its value in 2022.
The stock is down more than 90% from an all-time high in March 2015.
Oasis said the underperformance of TRG’s shares began even before COVID-19 due to “group-level decision-making” and “failure of oversight by a board that has lost focus on the long-term creation.”
Oasis said it had approached TRG’s board with its suggestions but had been rejected, forcing it to make the discussion public.
However, the fund manager did not mention when it first reached out to the company and on what grounds were the suggestions rejected.
The Restaurant Group did not immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra and Anchal Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sohini Goswami)
