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Embattled telco plans board reshuffle

The scandal-ridden Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (亞太固網) yesterday said that it planned to boost corporate governance through a board reshuffle today to increase financial transparency and help it ride out the crisis.

A company executive made the remarks yesterday after the government decided on Wednesday night to send a team of independent auditors to review the fixed-line operator's finances.

"I hope to build up the com-pany's corporate governance to enhance financial transparency and corporate communication [to share-holders]," Wang Lin-tai (王令台), vice chairman of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, told a press conference.

full cooperation

Wang said the company would fully cooperate with the government to maintain its operations, while working to minimize any negative impact from the financial woes of its parent company, Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).

A board shakeup is expected to top its agenda in an extraordinary board meeting today, with the aim of replacing chairwoman Wang Chin She-ying (王金世英).

The Rebar Group controls 22 out of the telecom company's 33-seat board. The Wang family is suspected to have used its influence on the board to misappropriate NT$30 billion (US$915 million) from Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom.

The government holds a 17.21-percent stake in Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom through the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA, 台鐵), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) and China Steel Corp (中鋼).

Legislators have taken the government to task for administrative negligence and lack of oversight, leading to the telecom company's current difficulties.

While both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Communications Commission had reached a consensus on the need to audit Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, the two agencies admitted on Wednesday that they had no idea what its current net worth was.

An unlisted company, Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom is not obligated to publicly disclose its financial statements.

Government Information Office (GIO) Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said earlier yesterday that the government had no intention of taking over the Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom.

Not a takeover

"We are `supervising' it, not `taking over,'" Cheng said. "And the only reason we are supervising it is to make sure that government's shares are secure. That's all."

Cheng's comments came in the wake of a report by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that Wang Lin-tai was planning to give up ownership of the company. The report also said that TRA may take over, without citing sources.

Cheng dismissed the report, saying: "The government has no plan [of taking over]. Moreover, the TRA only owns slightly more than NT$8 billion of the company; [it is] not the major shareholder," he said. "It is my understanding that the company is operating as normal."

The Ministry of Finance said last night that the Wang family should relinquish 10 out of its 22 board seats at today's extraordinary board meeting, allowing state shareholders a controlling power in the board, the Central News Agency reported citing unnamed ministry officials.

But Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said the meeting would not deal with the re-election of the company's board of directors and supervisors, according to CNA.

The report cited Shih as saying that the meeting would instead focus on how to perform financial auditing on the firm.

Despite the recent turmoil, Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom yesterday claimed that its subscriber numbers were still growing at a rate of 1,000 to 1,500 users per day.

And that's despite competition from Far EasTone Telecommun-ications Co (遠傳電信), the country's second-largest mobile operator, which is offering free voice calls or premium handsets to snare its subscribers, the company added. Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
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