Early departure of the Philips boss, weighed down by the recall of respirators

The Dutch health giant Philips announced on Tuesday the early departure of its general manager Frans van Houten, weighed down for a year by the international recall of millions of defective respirators marketed by the group.

Frans van Houten, who was to leave the head of Philips next April after 12 years in his post, will give way on October 15 to Roy Jakobs, the current supervisor of this gigantic recall operation which has already cost hundreds of millions of dollars. euros.

900 million euros to recall respirators

The supervisory board of Philips and the outgoing boss of the group "

", according to the press release issued by the group.

Frans van Houten said he was "

" of having notably led the diversification of Philips since 2010 to make it "

", but he agreed that "a

" for enable the Amsterdam-based group to "

".

Read alsoPhilips respirators: French patients accuse the group of being absent subscribers

Since June 2021, Philips has been forced to launch a massive international recall campaign for several defective models of respirators used in particular by patients suffering from sleep apnea.

The devices concerned contain a sound-absorbing foam, from which particles are detached which can cause irritation and headaches if they are inhaled or ingested.

The group also mentioned a “

” risk of long-term cancers.

To date, Philips has had to provision nearly 900 million euros to finance the operation, which also contributed to the net financial losses posted by the Dutch giant.

On the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the Philips title was up 0.14% to 20.09 euros after.