SIECO to take legal action against former board over Saramed

Saudi Industrial Exports Company (SIECO) said in a bourse statement that it plans to take legal action against its former board of directors over a SAR 7.12 goodwill impairment charge from its recently-acquired Sara Medical Supplies Factory (Saramed).

The board at the time was responsible for finalizing the acquisition deal. In April, SIECO completed the acquisition and ownership transfer of Saramed for SAR 9.5 million. However, the company had paid a total of SAR 10.58 million, according to financial statements as of end of June 2016.

The current board of directors is also seeking to apply a new policy for bad debt provisions by 2017-end.

The board explained it has around SAR 64.61 million in pending payments for 2014 and 2015, with no provisions taken to hedge against these bad debts.

In addition, the company is seeking to access new economically-feasible markets and has restructured the company's business portfolio to include new services for small and medium enterprises (SME).