Grand Cathay Securities gets new management

China Development Financial Holding Corp (開發金控), which last week elected former Bank of Taiwan chairman Chen Mu-tsai (陳木在) to replace Diana Chen (陳敏薰) as chairman, announced late Wednesday a new management team at its subsidiary Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券).

Grand Cathay's 11-member board decided to appoint Stan Siao (蕭子昂), formerly a Hong Kong-based managing director at Morgan Stanley, and Jeff Wang (王貞海), former head of KGI Securities Co's (中信證) regional brokerage, to take up Grand Cathay's chairmanship and presidency, respectively, replacing Paul Chiu (邱正雄) and Kate Wu (伍敏卿).

Both Siao and Wang were recruited and recommended by China Development Financial president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) to sit on Grand Cathay's board, according to a China Development statement.

Koo became president of China Development and chairman of its banking arm on April 20.

China Development's management had previously said it wanted to retain Chiu, a former minister of finance in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.

But Chiu appears to have chosen to step down, having failed to win a board seat at parent China Development after throwing his support behind Diana Chen.

The board meeting on Wednesday also addressed China Development's first-quarter performance.

With strong financial contributions from subsidiary China Development Industrial Bank (開發工銀) and Grand Cathay, the financial services company earned NT$4.22 billion in after-tax profit in the first quarter, reaching 50.8 percent of its full-year profit goal, with after-tax earnings per share of NT$0.42.

The industrial bank made NT$3.11 billion in after-tax revenue in the first quarter, reaching 40 percent of its full-year profit goal, with NT$0.35 in after-tax earnings per share.

Grand Cathay made NT$960 million in after-tax revenue in the first quarter, reaching 71.2 percent of its full-year profit goal, with NT$0.81 in after-tax earnings per share.

In a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, China Development Financial said its first-quarter net income rose fourfold from a year earlier to NT$4.02 billion, or NT$0.4 a share, from the restated NT$905 million, or NT$0.08 a share, in the year-earlier period.