Children's Place ex-CEO may bid for company: filing

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Children's Place Retail Stores Inc's (PLCE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) former chief executive has hired a financial adviser to help him weigh a bid for the children's apparel retailer, according to a filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of Children's Place surged $1.04, or 4.4 percent, to $24.96 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. The company's stock has fallen about 60 percent so far this year after a string of bad news, including the dismissal of former CEO Ezra Dabah and the resignation of the retailer's financial auditors.

Children's Place has a market capitalization of about $689 million.

Dabah said in the filing that he hired Bear Stearns & Co Inc to help him consider a bid for the company along with potential private equity and strategic partners.

Dabah, who holds a 17.9 percent stake in the company, also said he may consider nominating new members to the Children's Place board of directors.

Dabah stepped down as CEO of the retailer in late September after an internal probe found he did not comply with its securities-trading policies. The investigation also found irregularities in how he filed his expenses.

Dabah maintains that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, that the board and he "mutually agreed" that he would resign and that his resignation "was without cause." Dabah remains on the company's board.

Last week, merger advisory firm Peter J. Solomon Co. denied a Fortune magazine story that it had been hired by Children's Place.

(Reporting by Jessica Hall, editing by Steve Orlofsky and Gerald E. McCormick)