Yuanta takes four seats on Fuhwa Financial's board

Fuhwa Financial Holding Co (復華金控) completed a reshuffle of its board yesterday with Yuanta Group (元大集團), which holds a controlling stake in the company, securing four out of the nine board seats, as expected.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which holds a 23 percent stake in Fuhwa and used to have five board seats, retained three seats. Government-appointed directors hold two seats, down from three, with a 14 percent stake.

Yuanta Group, which owns the nation's largest securities brokerage Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co (元大京華證券), bought a 28 percent stake in Fuhwa in April. It plans to complete a merger with the nation's 12th-largest holding company by the end of the year.

At a board meeting later in the day, Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章), the nation's former representative to the WTO, was elected to replace Chang Chang-pang (張昌邦) as chairman of the board. Yen is backed by Yuanta.

Her Chang-mirng (何昌明), the former executive vice president of TaipeiBank (台北銀行), was elected to replace Fuhwa president Huang Shou-zuo (黃壽佐).

"We are glad that after several mergers in recent years, Fuhwa's banking unit has substantially expanded, from only 30 branches in 2002 to 58 branches now," Chang said at yesterday's the shareholder conference.

Fuhwa took over the Touliu Cooperative in Yunlin County (斗六信合社) in 2003, Taitung Cooperative (台東信合社) last year, and the Seventh Cooperative of Tainan City (台南市七信) last week.

Chang, who was backed by KMT, refused to comment on the new personnel and the mergers.

At yesterday's meeting, shareholders approved the board's proposal to issue a stock dividend of NT$0.512 per share and a NT$0.513 cash dividend.

For the first five months of the year, Fuhwa posted NT$702 million in after-tax earnings.