China Development's Chen gets support

China Development Financial Holding Corp (開發金控) president Chao Yuan-chi (趙元旗) yesterday led eight members of his management team to throw support behind company chairwoman Diana Chen (陳敏薰) in the run-up to the company's scheduled board reshuffle on April 5.

"Our incumbent management team under Chen's leadership is doing a very good job," Chao told a press conference yesterday.

Chao, who took office seven months ago, said that he strongly disagreed with outside criticism that the management team was performing poorly and vowed to "continue to do a good job whoever takes the company's helm in the future."

Without elaborating, Chao insisted that the company's share price had surged to NT$18, from NT$12 when he first took over the post.

He also said that the company's profit performance in January was better than the budgeted goal of NT$180 million, reaping an after-tax profit of NT$1.35 billion -- or 16.2 percent of the full-year goal.

Last week, two board candidates nominated by KGI Securities Co (中信證券) said that China Development, with a total of NT$90 billion in domestic and overseas re-investments, made NT$15 billion in annual capital gains, which they described as under-performing.