TTL chief could chair Taipower

Morgan Hwang (黃營杉), chairman of state-owned Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp (TTL, 台灣菸酒公司), could be appointed to chair Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), another state-run corporation, as soon as next month.

He is retiring from TTL at the end of this month.

"Hwang's outstanding management and communication skills make him an excellent candidate for the position," Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday.

The main reason why Hwang stood out among the candidates for the chairmanship of Taipower is his experience in handing public relations, Ho said.

While most of the power company's former chairmen have been engineers who, despite being highly qualified professionals, had little experience in the field of public relations, the minister said.

Therefore, Hwang's first job after taking over at Taipower will be to increase public understanding of the company, she said.

Taipower president Edward Chen (陳貴明), who has a wealth of professional expertise, will be running the company's daily operations, while Hwang will be in charge of communications, Ho said.

The appointment has been approved by the Cabinet, but still needs to be passed by Taipower's board. If the board approves, Hwang will take up the post as early as next month, she added.

Hwang's successor at TTL must still be announced, but Ray Dawn (董瑞斌), director of Kaohsiung City's Bureau of Finance, is widely expected to be the one to fill the post, according to Chinese-language media.

Taipower started out as a lucrative enterprise, given its local monopoly over electricity distribution. But with coal prices soaring in recent years while electricity rates remained at a level that had been fixed 20 years ago, Taipower's finances gradually started to decline.

For the first five months of this year, Taipower lost NT$4.18 billion (US$133.7 million) in pre-tax income, compared with a deficit of NT$1.37 billion a year ago. The company, which saw NT$6.9 billion in revenue last year, is expected to report a loss of NT$9 billion this year.

As a result, turning the former cash cow around, like he did with TTL, will be a major task for Hwang.

Hwang, 64, former director of National Taipei University's Business School, became the first chairman of TTL after the state-run monopoly was corporatized in July 2002. At the time, TTL's Taiwan Beer and other beverages were losing ground to foreign competitors.

To regain lost turf, Hwang introduced Gold Medal Taiwan Beer and recruited local rock star Wu Bai (伍佰) to help build a young and lively image for the product. Together with the company's efforts in fortifying its distribution network, TTL's share of the nation's beer market rebounded from 74 percent in 2002 to more than 80 percent at present.

Wu will feature in a series of ad campaigns for Taiwan Beer again this year after he signed a contract with TTL yesterday.

TTL posted NT$8.65 billion in pre-tax income last year, up from NT$8.54 in 2003.

Despite his success at TTL, revamping the old and bureaucratic Taipower could present a tougher challenge to Hwang.

As a result of having monopolized the electricity market for more than 60 years, Taipower has developed a peculiar enterprise culture that would be difficult to change in terms of company management, procurement and in other areas.

Even Lin Neng-pai (林能白), a former chairman of Taipower who applied a management style similar to Hwang's, found it difficult to change the corporation's structure.