A group of Canadians has agreed to invest $15 million in American Apparel Inc. and could add as much as $28 million in the next six months to enable the Los Angeles company to avoid bankruptcy.

The investors, which include Essentia Equity, will be able to exchange their cash and warrants for shares priced at 90 cents – a discount of more than 27 percent to the company’s Thursday closing price of $1.24, according to Roy Sebag, managing partner at Essentia Equity, one of the lenders.

If they exercise all their warrants as expected, they would own nearly one-third of outstanding shares.

“I am thankful of their support for the company,” Dov Charney, founder and chief executive of American Apparel, said in a text message to the Business Journal. “And I look forward to making them proud.”

According to a source close to the company, the deal includes requirements to appease the concerns of American Apparel lenders such as Bank of America. The loan will allow American Apparel to keep an additional $5 million in available cash on its balance sheet beyond its current $7.5 million requirement.

Sebag, who invested in Crocs in 2009 when the shoemaker was under financial pressure, expressed confidence in American Apparel and Charney. Sebag said that before the most recent deal, he had a 4 percent stake in the company.