Formosa founder mum on shuffle

Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), founder of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), declined to name candidates for the conglomerate's top posts, reinforcing concerns about succession at the nation's biggest diversified industrial company.

Wang's three-year term as chairman of three of the group's four biggest units ends next month. Shareholders are slated to elect new boards in June.

The election revives concerns about a successor to the 89-year-old billionaire, who is the nation's richest man.

Wang, who has two sons and seven daughters, hasn't named a replacement to take over the reins of Formosa Plastics Group, whose units account for about 10 percent of the Taiwan Stock Exchange's value.

"It will happen sooner or later" that younger people take over the group's top jobs, Wang said during Formosa Plastics' annual athletic meet outside Taipei on Saturday, in his first public appearance in almost a year.

"We'll know who they are after the elections take place," he said.

June board election

Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the group's oldest company, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), which operates an oil refinery, and chemical maker Formosa Chemi-cals & Fiber Corp (台灣化學纖維) are scheduled to re-elect their boards in June.

Wang has a net worth of US$5.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine's annual survey of the world's richest people.

Wang, who started his career selling rice, earned his fortune making plastics.

Formosa Plastics Corp is the world's second-biggest maker of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

Another unit, Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), is the world's largest processor of plastics for pipes and imitation leather.

Wang has investments in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Indo-nesia and the US, turning out semiconductors and fabrics among other products.

The Formosa Plastics Group also runs the nation's first non-state-owned crude oil refinery and was the first company in the country to operate an industrial port.

No heir-apparent

Wang has had no heir-apparent after he forced elder son Winston Wong (王文洋) to quit his post as senior vice president of Nan Ya Plastics in 1995.

In 1996, Winston Wong set up Grace T.H.W. Group (宏仁企業集團) in China, which has become a competitor of Nan Ya Plastics in the production of imitation leather and components of printed circuit boards used in electronics products including computers.

Wong also set up an integrated chip production company, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (宏力半導體) in Shanghai with Jiang Mianheng (江綿恆), son of China's former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民).

Wang's younger son Walter Wang (王文祥) is president of pipe-maker J-M Manufacturing Co, a unit of the Formosa Plastics Group in the US.

Daughter Cher Wang (王雪紅) is chairwoman of High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電), which makes pocket computers.

Another daughter, Charlene Wang (王雪齡), is president of First International Computer Inc (大眾電腦), a computer maker founded by her husband, Ming Chien (簡明仁).

Last July the Chinese-language the Commercial Times cited Wang as saying that his daughters could also be successors for his businesses.