2024-04-29 16:22:22
It will cost the company 1.1 billion dollars (1.03 billion euros), but its shareholders are delighted: the Dutch Philips announced on Monday April 29 that it intended to settle its disputes with American users of its respirators for people suffering from sleep apnea.
On the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, this settlement was greeted with joy – the stock jumped 41%, the largest increase ever recorded by the Eindhoven manufacturer – because shareholders expected a much higher addition, some 60,000 patients, including 2,000 suffering from cancer, have filed an action against the former electronics giant, which has converted to medical equipment.
The case, which was taken up by numerous American lawyers, broke out in 2021. Philips was forced to recall 15 million devices from its subsidiary Respironics around the world. They were suspected of causing inhalation of toxic foam, which could cause headaches and irritation. The company itself mentioned a “potential risk” de cancer.
According to its CEO, Roy Jakobs, the results of tests carried out since then have finally shown that the use of the machines could not cause any “appreciable damage to health”. Philips therefore does not admit “no fault or liability”. However, the brand decided, at the beginning of 2024, to stop selling its devices across the Atlantic.
” Go forward “
The amount of compensation relates to the “claims filed in U.S. courts and potential claims submitted to the Census Registry”clarified management, which however believes that “everything is not resolved”, notably because the US Department of Justice is pursuing a criminal investigation. Legal proceedings are also underway in France and the Netherlands.
Mr. Jakobs judges, however, that Philips can From now on ” go forward “driven by its excellent current performance, with a record turnover of 4.1 billion euros in the first quarter of 2024 – an amount close to the total losses caused by the respirator issue since 2021.
The only victims of the episode will ultimately be the nearly 1,000 employees (out of the 11,000 that Philips has) who lost their jobs following a crisis which also pushed the group to seek, for the first time, aid abroad. In 2023, Exor, the holding company majority-owned by the Agnelli family, invested 2.6 billion euros and became a 15% shareholder in the company. This agreement protected the Dutch from a hostile raid.
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