Battle for board of Waterland Financial ends

After months of intense competition between two groups of rebel shareholders for the leadership of Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控), management changed hands yesterday with Nice Group (耐斯) securing five seats on the 11-member board of directors.

Led by president Chen Jer-fang (陳哲芳), Nice Group runs Central Insurance Co (中央產險), Janfusun Fancy World (劍湖山世界) theme park, Bowa Bank (寶華銀行) and food manufacturer AGV Products Corp (愛之味).

Waterland is the nation's smallest financial services provider, with assets of around NT$245 billion (US$8 billion).

Chen's major rival in the board election was Hung San-hsiung (洪三雄), who serves as chairman of Taiwan Financial Asset Services Corp (台灣金服公司). Hung's group took four seats, while the government acquired two.

The Ministry of Finance controls around 13.5 percent in Waterland through state-owned banks, including Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) and the International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, 中國國際商銀).

Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) said last month that the government would support the majority shareholder on the choices of company chairman and general manager.

Chen said yesterday that he would soon pay visits to Lin and Hung to reach consensus and convene his first board meeting within 15 days.

Asked whether he has any candidates for the management team, Chen shied away from giving a direct answer, saying only that he respects the government's opinion.

However, he did say that the new chairman and general manager must have international vision and strong banking experience.

Yesterday's shareholder meeting was Waterland's longest in the past decade, with 94.91 percent of its shareholders attending the event.

Before former chairman Walter Lin (林華德) was ousted by the Financial Supervisory Commission over his suspected involvement in the Procomp Informatics Co (博達科技) scandal earlier this month, the management dispute had turned so white-hot that the government had to repeatedly reaffirm its neutrality.

But faced with yesterday's election results, Hung -- who lost by just a small margin -- said he would leave it to his lawyers to deal with controversies arising from the election. He did not elaborate.

Chen said he would push for resource integration in order to optimize performance but has no plans to merge Bowa Bank under Waterland's umbrella within the next three years.

US-based GMAC Commercial Holding Corp become the second-largest shareholder, after Nice Group, in Bowa Bank with an investment of NT$6 billion.

Chen said they will not merge the private lender in the near term but will seek a strategic alliance.

Waterland's shareholders also approved the decision to declare a cash dividend of NT$1.4 per share.