Formosa Plastics Corp's Wang not seeking new term

Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), Taiwan's richest man, won't seek a new term as Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) chairman, the first time the founder of the nation's biggest diversified industrial company has stepped down as head of one of its main units.

Wang, 89, will not seek re-election for a further three-year term as head of the company or as a member of its board, spokesman Jerry Lin said before a shareholders meeting yesterday.

Lee Chih-tsuen (李志村), 70, the Formosa Plastics Corp president, was named chairman in Wang's place at a board meeting in Taipei yesterday.

Wang in April said board elections at three of Formosa's biggest units will provide a pointer on who'll succeed him as the group's leader. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), an oil refiner, and chemical maker Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維) will choose boards later this month. Wang is also chairman of the two subsidiaries.

The founder and his younger brother, Wang Yung-tsai (王永在), 84, will leave the boards of all the units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the group said yesterday. The two men have "decided to gradually pass on the baton and to step down from the boards of the units one by one, the group said in a statement."

The group appointed William Wong (王文淵), a nephew of the founder, chief executive officer, and Susan Wang (王瑞華), Wang Yung-ching's daughter, as deputy chief executive officer, according to the statement. These are new positions for the group company.

Formosa Plastics, founded in 1954, is the world's second-biggest maker of PVC. Wang has been the only chairman of the company.

With factories in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, the US and Vietnam, Formosa Plastics Group's products range from semiconductors to detergents. It also runs Taiwan's first non-state-owned oil refinery.