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Chiba takes over as chairman of EnTie Commercial Bank

EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday replaced five members of its nine-seat board, including outgoing chairman Paul Chiu (邱正雄), the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Replacing Chiu is Mike Chiba, a partner and chairman of Longreach Group, which spent NT$18.8 billion (US$560 million) to acquire a 51 percent controlling stake in the bank.

The four other new board members are also representatives from the private equity firm: Kazunori Okimoto, Bernard Kwan, Makoto Inoue and Yasuyuki Miyoshi.

EnTie is scheduled to hold another shareholders' meeting on Dec. 27 to complete a full board reshuffle after its new foreign owner takes over the company's helm, bank spokesman Tang Tsung-chi (唐存智) said in a telephone interview.

Tang said that capital infusion from Longreach had transformed EnTie, which had been posting losses, into a foreign-owned bank.

Chiba's three-year chairmanship took effect yesterday, Tang said, but added that the new chairman was looking for a chief executive officer to manage the bank.

"It's likely that he will search in the local talent pool for a Taiwanese professional who has had experience working for foreign-owned banks," he said.

Speculation on potential candidates has been widely reported in the Chinese-language media, which said Chiba may consider offering a package deal that includes an annual salary of NT$22 million to Jesse Ding (丁予康), president of Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), and its parent Fubon Financial Holding Co's (富邦金控) chief executive Victor Kung (龔天行).

Both Ding and Kung rejected the speculation yesterday.

On Oct. 25, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) affirmed its `twBBB+' long-term and `twA-2' short-term counterparty credit ratings on EnTie Bank with a positive outlook.

Taiwan Ratings said that the ratings reflected EnTie's adequate capitalization after the completion of its proposed capital injection plan and adequate liquidity.
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