Lakeland Industries Hires Firm For Financial Advice

Ronkonkoma-based Lakeland Industries has hired the investment banking firm of Raymond James & Associates to assist the company with advice on how to manage its financial outlook in the near future.

According to a release from the manufacturer of safety garments and industrial protective clothing it is seeking recommendations from Raymond James & Associates to:

"assist the Board of Directors in its evaluation of a broad range of financial
and strategic alternatives, including, but not limited to, changes in the
Company's capitalization, potential restructuring of existing debt or a possible sale of all or part of the Company."

Lakeland Industries said whatever the firm recommends will not necessarily have to be enacted, but that it is considering those options to increase shareholder value and to help deal with the $10 million it's been ordered to pay after it lost an arbitration battle to two former Brazilian executives last month.

In May an arbitration panel ruled that the company owed the executives, from whom they'd purchased a small factory in Brazil, money it had withheld citing lack of financial performance, as well as money owed for terminating the executives without cause.

Christopher Ryan, Lakeland's chief executive told the Patch that Raymond James was hired to help secure outside funding to help pay the settlement, but that was just one of its duties.

"The board hired Raymond James to present a number of options," Ryan said. "That could be one of twenty options. They're [Raymond James] looking at different ways to increase shareholder value."