Caesarstone, the Israeli company whose quartz countertops sit in kitchens around the world, has delayed its third-quarter earnings report by a week, to November 11, saying it needs more time for talks on legal settlements, Globes reported.
The report had been scheduled for Wednesday. The company said the delay would “allow additional time for discussions related to legal settlements” and gave no further detail. No settlement has been announced, and the results themselves remain under wraps: investors will now wait a week to see the numbers while the company’s biggest legal fight stays open.
That fight is over silicosis, an incurable lung disease. Lawsuits in the United States claim that workers who cut and installed Caesarstone’s engineered-stone slabs fell ill from breathing silica dust on the job. Last week, a California jury found the company liable in one of those cases and awarded $67.3 million in damages, of which $46.5 million falls on Caesarstone. The company said then that it was reviewing its options.
A quartz kitchen countertop (ShiroMTUN / CC BY-SA 4.0).
The delay lands in a difficult stretch. Caesarstone, led by chief executive Yossi Shiran and traded on Nasdaq, is worth about $59 million today, down from a peak of $2.5 billion in 2012, squeezed by intensifying competition and the mounting legal cases, Globes reported. Kibbutz Sdot Yam, where the company was born, holds 30.2% of its shares, and the Tene private equity fund holds 10.4%.
Overnight the company also updated the summons to its next shareholder meeting. A long-standing voting agreement between the kibbutz and Tene had expired, but at a shareholder’s request a vote on re-electing chairman Ariel Halperin of Tene was added to the agenda, while another candidate, kibbutz business manager Aviv Ben Horin, withdrew.
What it means: nothing is settled yet – not the California case, not the remaining lawsuits, and not the quarter’s results. For investors, employees and the kibbutz that remains the company’s anchor shareholder, November 11 is now the date that matters, the day they find out what the legal fight is costing one of Israel’s best-known home brands.
JBizNews Desk | Tel Aviv
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