Court dismisses eSense case

Legal proceedings started by two eSense-Lab directors, including Otsana Capital director Brendan de Kauwe, against the life sciences company in Israel have been dismissed.

Mr de Kauwe was replaced as chairman by Ilan Saad last Thursday following a company meeting and began legal action on Sunday, along with director Quentin Megson, seeking to revoke the replacement and cancel the planned annual meeting on March 29.

All motions brought by the two directors were rejected yesterday, with the court finding the company had acted properly in passing resolutions at last Thursday’s meeting.

The news comes after a group of shareholders recently requisitioned a general meeting to remove three directors, including chief executive Haim Cohen, while also seeking the reappointment of Mr de Kauwe as chairman of the company.

The group has proposed resolutions to remove Mr Cohen and non-executive directors Eran Gilboa and Mr Saad.

Along with the proposed appointments, the group is seeking to appoint MMJ Phyotech managing director Andreas Gedeon and Otsana Capital founder Faldi Ismail to the board.

eSense, which is headquartered in Israel, listed on the ASX in February last year and has developed plant profiling technology that can be used to generate a comprehensive model of targeted plants.

The model is used to reverse engineer and reconstruct the plant’s profile using alternate natural sources, in what it says is a more cost-effective and sustainable way.

Its primary focus is on the cannabis plant.

Shares in eSense were up 5.5 per cent at 19 cents at 2pm AEDT.