China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) chairwoman Diana Chen (陳敏薰) appears destined to fail in her bid to retain her hold over the company at its April 5 board of directors election.
Chinese-language media yesterday reported that Chen has secured less than 20 percent of the proxy votes for the election, while her foes -- the Ministry of Finance and KGI Securities Co (中信證券) -- have secured more than 60 percent.
Yesterday was the final day for the proxy solicitation campaign.
Neither China Development nor KGI Securities would confirm the number of proxies they hold.
China Development spokeswoman Grace Fang (方鳳山) said that the company will make public the final holding by each shareholder today or tomorrow after the company counts the proxy votes that each shareholder has secured over the past three-and-a-half weeks.
Fang, however, said that traditionally shareholders "can secure one board seat with every 4 percent of proxy votes."
That would mean if Chen has secured between 15 percent to 20 percent of the proxy votes, she should be able to win over four to five of the company's reshuffled 21-member board. That would not be enough to retain her job as chairwoman.
With 65 percent of the proxy vote, KGI and the finance ministry should be able to take over a minimum of 15 seats. The government has previously indicated that it wants eight of the seats.
KGI chief financial officer Sherie Chiu (邱德馨) reiterated yesterday that her company also wants at least eight seats and hoped to flex its muscle over the new board after next Monday's election.
Chiu said that the company hasn't finalized the number of proxies it has secured, but it will make the figure public soon. She did confirm, however, that KGI has raised its stake slightly in China Development.
KGI president Angelo Koo (
Despite media speculation that the finance ministry is interested in competing for the chairmanship, the government hasn't nominated a candidate to compete with Koo.
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