French retailer Vivarte changes CEO

PARIS (Reuters) - French clothing retailer Vivarte on Thursday dismissed CEO Stephane Maquaire just months after appointing him, a move which was criticised by the head of the board, who resigned from his own position in protest.

Vivarte, owner of brands including Kookai, Naf Naf and Chevignon, is owned by a group led by investment funds Alcentra, Babson, Oaktree and GLG Partners.

"Following the decision by a majority of the board to terminate the employment of Stephane Maquaire, I have immediately resigned from my mandates as independent administrator and president of the board of Vivarte group to show I disagreed with this decision," Pierre-Antoine Gailly said in a statement sent to Reuters.

Maquaire, who was picked for the chief executive job in February, had presented in September a 500 million euro, 5-year plan that included selling about a hundred shoe stores to set the highly-indebted group back on track.

But a majority of the shareholders, who had initially backed the plan, decided they wanted more assets to be sold to get more cash more quickly, sources close to the issue said.

Maquaire will be replaced by Patrick Puy, who has managed a number of struggling firms for the same investment funds, the sources said.

Vivarte's turnover had dropped to 2.2 billion euros for the year 2015-2016 which ended in August from 2.4 billion in 2014-2015, while its debt nearly doubled in two years to about 1.5 billion euros from 800 million in the summer 2014.

(Reporting by Pascale Denis; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Toby Chopra)