Dov Charney has beaten back the loan sharks — again.
The controversial CEO of American Apparel survived a vicious battle with creditors including Goldman Sachs by selling $30.5 million of newly issued shares on Tuesday, even as the retailer scrambles to reverse mounting losses.
The cash infusion did dilute current shareholders by as much as 50 percent, but it will enable Charney to keep control of the company by meeting a $13.7 million interest payment on secured debt coming due April 15.
“Dov Charney is the cat with 900 lives,” said Billy Susman of Threadstone LP, a New York investment bank.
Indeed, insiders say creditors holding more than $200 million in secured loans had hired the investment bank Houlihan Lokey and the law firm Milbank Tweed in a bid to seize control of the retailer and push out Charney for good.
Creditors, including Goldman, “were playing for keeps,” according to one source close to the process. “American Apparel could have had a new owner.”
Representatives of Houlihan Lokey and Milbank Tweed declined to comment.
Charney, whose past headaches have included a rash of sex-harassment lawsuits from female employees, was backed up against a wall in recent weeks.
As of Feb. 28, American Apparel had just $4.9 million in cash and $3.3 million available on its credit lines, securities filings show.
“We’ve had some growing pains,” Charney admitted Tuesday in an interview with The Post.
Charney declined to comment on the company’s financial negotiations.
But a new California distribution center that had been plagued by software glitches and logistics issues is now “working like a charm” and is no longer bleeding cash, he said.
“It’s like the Obama computer — it’s hard to say what happened,” Charney said, referring to the botched launch of healthcare.gov. “But it’s totally fixed now.”
American Apparel shares plunged 22 percent Tuesday to close at 59 cents, as the fresh liquidity was overshadowed by severe shareholder dilution from the new stock issuance.
The deal gives investors the chance to buy an additional $4.6 million in shares in the next 30 days.
Tuesday’s stock drop left the company with a market capitalization of just $65 million — far less than the $107 million the retailer lost in 2013, according to a securities filing Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Charney insisted that the company’s sales and profitability are poised to improve this year.
Likewise, Charney dismissed as “ridiculous” a recent branding survey that called American Apparel one of the “least engaging brands of 2014,” landing it in a group with Sears, Kmart and BlackBerry.
Noting that American Apparel has millions of followers on social networks like Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, Charney said he also likes shopping at Kmart.