Orange franchisee Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) controlling shareholder Ilan Ben-Dov has again shaken up the mobile carrier, replacing its CEO for the second time in 18 months. Haim Romano has replaced Yacov Gelbard, after the board of directors approved Gelbard's request to leave his office, as the announcement put it. Romano will take over on October 2.
Partner's performance has been poor, and the company has faced crises in several areas, prompting Ben-Dov to replace Gelbard.
Romano served as deputy CEO of Partner under CEO Amikam Cohen, and was a candidate to replace Cohen before deciding to accept the job of CEO of El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL).
There has been talk about a change at the helm of Partner for weeks, which Ben-Ilan always denied. However, mounting problems and because Partner under Gelbard failed to meet Ben-Dov or the capital market's expectations, not to mention expectations of the public, Partner's board decided to replace him.
Gelbard replaced David Avner, who decided to leave the company. Gelbard was a natural choice, as he was a director in the company and previously served as CEO of mobile carrier Pelephone Communications Ltd. and later as CEO of its parent company, Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ). He is familiar with Israel's telecommunications market and played a key role in its major developments.
Partner's share price fell 0.8% on Nasdaq yesterday to $9.57, giving a market cap of $1.49 billion, and fell 2.2% in morning trading on the TASE today to NIS 34.51.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 14, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011