Zvi Marom stands down as BATM CEO

Zvi Marom, CEO of telecommunications and medical equipment company BATM Advanced Communications (TASE: BVC; LSE: BVC), announced today that he would be stepping down from management of the company that he founded in 1992, and that he would become a director. Marom will be replaced by the company’s CFO Moti Nagar, who joined it in 2015. BATM’s share price fell 1.8% today, giving the company a market cap of NIS 490 million.

Marom founded BATM as a telecommunications solutions company, and successfully led it to flotations in Tel Aviv and London. At the end of the 2000s, he introduced development of medical equipment, when the cellular telecommunications market became more competitive, and the company has successfully managed both tracks.

Marom is a colorful character, with rich general knowledge and an interesting, and sometimes blunt, style of speaking, invoking examples and quotations from his wide range of reference. The company’s diversification into medical equipment was possible because Marom, a former officer in the Israel Navy, himself holds a degree in medicine as well as in electronics. He was also chairman of the Israeli Hi-Tech and Innovation Industries Association of the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel. In the past, he was considered a friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, and even employed him for a time at BATM, between Netanyahu’s terms as prime minister.

Marom told “Globes” today, “I have reached the official retirement age. In the past eight years, we have started to train a cadre of managers in an orderly way. I shall continue to deal with strategic matters at the company, and to serve as chairperson of subsidiary Ador Diagnostics.”

BATM was floated in London in 1996, and in 2012 became listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, from which it was delisted in 2015, listing once again in 2019. In the past five years, BATM’s stock has shown a 55% return in London. During the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, BATM’s share price shot up as it rapidly developed devices and diagnostic tests related to the disease, but fell back again as the pandemic subsided and stock markets weakened, especially the biomed sector.

In the first half of 2022, BATM had revenue of $57 million, 11% less than in the first half of 2021. The decline was because of exchange rate differences and because of the high revenue from Covid-19 tests in 2021.

A few months ago, Marom said that BATM might list on Nasdaq and delist in London following regulatory changes on the London Stock Exchange fro non-local companies. Today, however, he said that this was not on the agenda. “The markets are not currently conducive to a good offering on Nasdaq, but we’ll be there yet. We did also receive a proposal for merging into a SPAC, and we refused. We’re not a unicorn, but a high-tech camel, that can keep pulling and survive even when the market is tough.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 6, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.

  The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rose today. The Tel Aviv 35 Index rose 1.62%, to 1,867.62 points; the Tel Aviv 125 Index rose 1.33%, to 1,903.10 points; and the BlueTech Global Index rose 0.43%, to 387.75 points. The TelBond 60 corporate bond index rose 0.28%, to 349.79 points. Turnover totaled NIS 3.62 billion in equities and NIS 3.43 billion in bonds.

In the past two weeks (in which there have been breaks in trading for the Rosh Hashana holiday and Yom Kippur), the Tel Aviv 35 Index has fallen 2.9%. The index is down 5.6% for the year to date.

On the foreign exchange market today, the shekel-dollar representative rate was set 1.26% lower, at NIS 3.5380/$, and the shekel-euro representative rate was set 0.05% lower, at NIS 3.4982/€.

Teva led trading today, and rose 5.97%. Bank Leumi rose 2.33%; Bank Hapoalim rose 1.48%; Energix fell 1.81%; and Ormat Technologies fell 2.73%. Notable advancers today were Liveperson, up 3.28%; Perion Network, up 9.55% after releasing better than expected preliminary third quarter results; and Elbit Systems, up 4.39%. Nayax fell 4.59% and IES fell 4.50%.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange will be closed for the Sukkot holiday, reopening on Tuesday, October 11.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 6, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.