Taishin the big winner in Chang Hwa board vote

As expected, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) won a majority of seats on the board of Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) in the bank's ad hoc shareholders meeting yesterday.

As of press time, Taishin Financial, the bank's largest shareholder, took eight seats on Chang Hwa's 15-seat board, while the second largest shareholder, the Ministry of Finance, got four seats. The lender's current chairman, Chang Po-shin (張伯欣), and his supporters secured two seats, and the last seat went to another major shareholder in Chen Chien-chih (陳健志), with the cooperation of the bank's union.

Up to 80.48 percent of Chang Hwa's 270,000 shareholders cast their ballots yesterday. The extraordinary shareholders meeting dragged on for over 12 hours before the election results became known.

Taishin Financial, the nation's eighth-largest financial group, outbid six competitors in July to buy a controlling 22.5-percent stake in the then state-owned Chang Hwa for NT$36.6 billion (US$1.09 billion), becoming the bank's largest shareholder.

The ministry holds an 18.8 percent stake in the bank, while Chang controls a negligible 0.05 percent stake.

The newly elected board directors will convene a board meeting Tuesday to select a new chairman, Chang Hwa spokesman Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭南) said in a phone interview yesterday.

As for the next chairman, the biggest winner in yesterday's vote, Taishin Financial, would hold true to its word, the financial group's spokesperson Carol Lai (賴昭吟) said in a phone interview. Taishin Financial chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said in August that they will support Chang to continue its chairmanship.

As of September, the debt-ridden Chang Hwa had bad loans amounting to around NT$48 billion with a non-performing loan ratio of 5.4 percent in comparison with an average level of 2.8 percent. The lender will take revenue from share sales to write off its bad loans.

Chang Hwa and Taishin Financial shares yesterday remained unchanged at NT$15.45 and NT$17.3.