By Adam Jourdan and Anne Marie Roantree
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Samsonite International SA (HK:1910) said on Friday it has replaced CEO Ramesh Tainwala, a move that comes after a short-seller attack on its accounting practices including transactions with entities owned by Tainwala and his family.
The attack by newly launched shortseller Blue Orca sent Samsonite's shares plunging more than 20 percent in two days of trading late last week, before they were suspended. In early trade on Friday they were up 15 percent.
The world's biggest luggage maker said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that Chief Financial Officer Kyle Gendreau would take the helm with immediate effect.
Samsonite said Tainwala would no longer be an executive director and that it was in talks with him about the terms of his departure, which would be confirmed at a shareholder meeting to be convened "as soon as practicable".
It said his resignation was "in the best interests of the company and its shareholders". It added the board took seriously allegations about Tainwala's academic credentials. Blue Orca had said some claims about his educational background were false.
Tainwala did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. He told Reuters last week the firm maintained a "very high standard" of accounting and that "every allegation ... is mischievous and false."
Samsonite last week had called the allegations "misleading" and "one-sided" and reserved the right to take legal action.
Blue Orca, which was launched last month by Texas-based short-seller Soren Aandahl, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gendreau, 49, joined Samsonite in 2008 and has been CFO since early 2009. Before joining the firm he worked in various financial roles at firms including venture capital-backed start-up Zoots and catalog retailer Specialty Catalog Corporation.
Headquartered in Massachusetts, Samsonite is one of the few major foreign stocks listed in Hong Kong, alongside Prada (HK:1913) and cosmetics firm L'Occitane International (HK:0973).
