Diana Chen still in with chance

China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) chairwoman Diana Chen (陳敏薰) yesterday grabbed four seats on the company's reshuffled 21-member board while her opponents -- the Ministry of Finance and KGI Securities Co (中信證券) -- jointly wrapped up a less-than-expected total of 14 seats.

The ministry and KGI each secured seven seats, including one independent board seat.

The remaining three seats went to private shareholders including Yeh Kuo-yi (葉國一) of the Inventec Corp (英業達), two representatives from Yuen Foong Yu Group (永豐餘集團) and a re-investment venture candidate of Acer Inc.

Although Chen was not re-elected into the new board in her capacity as company head, Chen's family-run businesses including Lilontex Corp (理隆纖維) and three other re-investment venture capital firms not only firmly secured a total of four seats, but also garnered the highest votes.

With the highest votes, Chen, on behalf of Lilontex, is entitled to call for a new board meeting within the next 15 days to elect the company's new chairperson.

Chen, who officially stepped down from her post on Sunday, dismissed yesterday's meeting without announcing when the board meeting will be convened to elect her successor.

So far, candidates for the company's three-year chairperson post include KGI president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) and a yet-to-be-nominated ministry candidate, as the two parties claim the highest amount of seats on the new board.

Finance Minister Lin Chuan (林全) previously said that the government hasn't ruled out the possibility of nominating its own candidate to compete against Koo for the position.

Chen said on Sunday that she may throw her support behind the ministry's candidate for the chairmanship, which is likely to advantage the government with an extra four-seat support in the upcoming chairmanship race.

China Development's board election yesterday attracted an attendance rate of 87.73 percent, or some estimated 5,000 participating shareholders -- a record high in the history of the company's shareholders' meetings -- to cast their ballots, triggering a marathon five-hour-long vote-count in the afternoon and a lengthy discussion in the morning about the company's future.

Slightly dissatisfied with its election performance, KGI yesterday also took some time to recount the votes cast.

Packed with at least 700 individual shareholders, the meeting acknowledged the company's after-tax losses of NT$13 billion last year, passing a resolution that no dividends will be distributed to shareholders this year.

Despite that, China Development hopes to turn an after-tax profit of NT$8.3 billion this year with an NT$0.8 earning per share (EPS).

China Development shares ended unchanged at NT$19.40 on the TAIEX yesterday.