Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券), the nation’s second largest brokerage, yesterday appointed a new chairman, Lin Shau-dai (林孝達), to fill the vacancy left by Wayne Pai (白文正), who was found dead after an apparent suicide yesterday morning after being reported missing a day earlier.
The board of Polaris called a special meeting yesterday to put 75-year-old Lin, chairman of affiliated Polaris International Securities Investment Trust Co (寶來投信), in charge of the brokerage whose shares plunged 6.8 percent to close at NT$15.8, their lowest level since Feb. 12.
Peter Huang (黃古彬), president of Polaris Securities, told reporters at a press briefing that he regretted Pai’s death but assured investors that the tragedy would not affect the company’s operations.
Huang said Pai had called him after landing in Penghu on Wednesday and said that if he was no longer there, the company should hold a board meeting as soon as possible to elect a new chairman.
The securities company’s shares have plunged 31 percent since early May after prosecutors raided Polaris headquarters and detained Pai, who was suspected of irregularities. He was questioned by prosecutors on May 11 regarding the 2004 sale of Polaris International shares to the brokerage. He was released on bail of NT$20 million (US$658,000).
Polaris paid NT$899 million four years ago for 28 percent of Polaris International from 22 individuals, with 12 sellers related to the company’s management or directors, including Pai, a company official said at that time.
Polaris spokesman Wong Jian (翁建) attributed Pai’s death to media accusations that he bought a honorary doctorate degree from National Chiao Tung University.
“Pai valued his reputation more than his life,” Wong said.
“The allegations that he purchased the degree dealt him an excruciating blow,” Wong said.
The company filed a missing person’s report on Thursday, saying that Pai was suffering from emotional problems.
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Vice Chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) echoed the observation.
Chang told a press briefing yesterday that the financial regulator was shocked at the sudden death of Pai, who appeared to have an outgoing, sunny disposition.
“The commission is deeply sorry about the mishap,” Chang said. “Pai made distinguished contributions to the nation’s capital market during his longstanding service in the industry.”
A self-made man, Pai, 55, founded the Polaris group that encompasses securities, futures, investment and trust, banking and property insurance operations, with a total workforce of more than 6,000.
The securities firm takes up more than 15 percent of the market share in the on-line trading brokerage industry, with overall net assets of more than NT$300 billion.
Chang praised Pai as innovative and forward-looking.
Polaris launched the first Exchanged Traded Fund in Taiwan in 2003 and its size grew 10-fold within a year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by