As expected, Shaul Elovitch, Or Elovitch, and Orna Elovitch have announced their intention to resign from Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd.'s (TASE: BEZQ) board of directors. Factors in their decision include the investigation against them in Case 4000 and the fact that a meeting of Eurocom Group's creditors approved the group's acquisition by Saidoff. The deal will soon be submitted to the court for approval.
At this stage, Bezeq's board of directors has decided against appointing a temporary replacement for CEO Stella Handler. The board will continue monitoring developments in the coming days before making a decision about replacing her. It cannot be ruled out that a decision about the next CEO will be made by a new board of directors in Bezeq, or by Saidoff's entry as the new controlling shareholder in Eurocom.
Investment institutions not waiting
Investment institutions today notified Bezeq through Entropy that they intend to summon a shareholders' meeting in order to appoint three external professional directors to Bezeq's board, thereby signaling that they do not plan to wait for the general shareholders' meeting following publication of Bezeq's 2017 reports, which is scheduled around May 2018. This delay was requested by acting Bezeq chairperson David Granot.
The investment institutions involved said they held over 5% of Bezeq's stock, which entitles them to summon a general shareholders' meeting. Whether their group is recognized by the Ministry of Communications is another matter, because the Ministry of Communications' approval is required in order to hold a 5% stake in Bezeq. In this case, an aggregate holding of several concerns is involved, and it is therefore unclear how Bezeq will respond to the request. At the same time, it is likely that Bezeq will not want a conflict with investment institutions right now, and may therefore agree.
For its part, Bezeq has already made it clear that it intends to recommend professional directors for the company through a professional committee composed of Granot and director Zeev Vurembrand. The Emda company is helping the professional committee find candidates. The investment institutions intend to recommend a list of directors, three of whom will be selected for Bezeq's board.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on February 25, 2018
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