Scailex Corporation (TASE: SCIX; Pink Sheets:SCIXF), which imports Samsung handsets to Israel, announced this morning that Ilan Ben-Dov had been removed from the post of company chairman. The move against Ben-Dov came because of differences of opinion between him and the directors over the management of the company's affairs. Ben-Dov will remain as a director of the company.
In addition, external directors Yona Admon and Dror Barzilai announced their resignations from the board, while Arie Ovadia and Shalom Zinger announced that they did not intend to stand for reelection as directors, and that they wished to stand down by the end of July this year. They said they wished to resign because of the changes that had taken place in the management of the company and their estimate that their ability to contribute to the future of its business was less than in the past.
The move against Ben-Dov was led by Yaakov Luxembourg, who controls Lapidoth Israel Oil Prospectors Corporation Ltd. (TASE: LAPD), which holds NIS 70 million worth of bonds of Scailex and its parent company Suny Electronics Ltd. (TASE: SUNY), just four days after he and two of his representatives came onto the Scailex board.
In addition, the Scailex provided an official response to the affair of the exploding batteries in Samsung Galaxy S4 handsets. The company says that, from the third quarter of 2013 indications started to be received of defects in the handset, which was launched in Israel last May.
The company says that it in continuous and intense contact with Samsung about the defects, and that in February this year it started to conduct its own examination of the matter, which has not yet concluded.
Scailex reports that Samsung told it that examinations by an external laboratory confirmed that the defects in the batteries did not affect their safety. Samsung also said that it was taking action on the matter in cooperation with the mobile carriers.
Scailex also states that no similar defects were observed in batteries of Galaxy S4 handsets manufactured from January this year onwards.
"At the date of this notice", Scailex states, "since the above-mentioned examination has not yet finished and the data requested from Samsung has still not all been received, and also in the light of the fact that press and media reports about breakdowns and safety incidents have appeared only in the past few days, at this stage the company is unable to estimate the results of the examination, its consequences, and its effect on the company's revenue and profits."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 23, 2014
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