MENASHE, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kibbutz Sdot-Yam, the largest shareholder of Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd. (NASDAQ: CSTE) (the “Company”), owning approximately 32.4% of the Company’s outstanding shares, today issued the following statement in response to a letter from a Caesarstone director nominee:
“As Caesarstone’s largest shareholder and founders of the Company, we have a strong interest in its success. We introduced Mr. Kaplan as a candidate to the Caesarstone board of directors because we believed and continue to believe he is an ideal candidate. With a 25-year track record of successfully leading publicly traded companies, he will bring to the Caesarstone board a unique and fresh perspective on the many challenges currently faced by the Company. Among these challenges are inadequate corporate controls and governance, underperformance of share price as compared to competitors and an inappropriate level of influence exerted by the management team over the board of directors.
“In addition to supporting Mr. Kaplan’s candidacy to the board, the Kibbutz is advocating on behalf of two other highly qualified, independent director nominees. Our hope continues to be that Mr. Kaplan, alongside the two independent nominees we are proposing, will bring about meaningful and much-needed improvement to Caesarstone’s board of directors and corporate governance, and help address the governance problems that led two independent directors to resign from the board during the last few months.”
About Sdot-Yam
Founded in 1937 near Haifa, Israel, Kibbutz Sdot-Yam, today based in Caesarea, is the largest shareholder of Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd. (NASDAQ: CSTE), with approximately 32.4% of the shares in the Company. Initially formed as a fishing and agriculture enterprise, the Kibbutz Sdot-Yam expanded to encompass industrial enterprises, including Caesarstone, a global leader and pioneer in quartz surfaces for a variety of uses and applications such as kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities, flooring, wall cladding and more. Launched by Kibbutz Sdot-Yam in 1987, Caesarstone products are available in more than 40 countries around the world.