OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎) chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) yesterday said that Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey’s (翁啟惠) daughter holding a sizable portion of company shares was in accordance with regulations.
Chang’s remarks came after OBI Pharma general manager Amy Huang was (黃秀美) questioned by Taipei prosecutors yesterday in a probe launched by the Financial Supervisory Commission into allegations of market manipulation and insider trading.
Chang said that Wong Yu-shioh (翁郁秀) — Wong Chi-huey’s daughter and a major stakeholder in Optimer Pharmaceutical Inc — agreed to purchase 3 million OBI Pharma shares in 2012 at NT$31 per share, after her father turned down an offer for a 6 million-share stake.
Wong Chi-huey is the co-founder of US-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals, which was OBI Pharma’s parent company, and endorsed OBI Pharma after company shares last month tanked due to discouraging clinical test results for a new breast cancer drug, OBI-822.
Chang said the share offer was made by Ruentex Group (潤泰集團), which in the same year purchased 60 million OBI Pharma shares from Optimer Pharmaceuticals, as the US company sought to sell off its subsidiary back to its Taiwanese founders.
Chang said that following the purchase, Ruentex Group chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) offered Wong Chi-huey a chance to buy back 10 percent of the 60 million shares.
Chang, Wong Chi-huey, and Optimer Pharmaceutical cofounder Samuel Danishefsky hold a stake entitling them to an option to dispose of 10 percent of the 60 million shares.
After Wong Chi-huey declined to purchase the 6 million OBI Pharma shares, Chang said he arranged to have OBI Pharma employees purchase half of the shares, while the remaining 3 million shares were acquired by Wong Yu-shioh.
Danishefsky also declined to purchase the shares, Chang said.
Chang said that the NT$31 share price was determined following negotiations with MasterLink Securities Corp (元富證券), a brokerage tasked with preparing OBI Pharma’s debut on the Emerging Stock Market.
On Thursday, Wong Chi-huey said that his daughter used her savings and gifts from her parents to fund the purchase of 3 million OBI Pharma shares.
He said that he neglected to disclose his daughter’s stock purchase out of respect of her status as an independent adult.
Wong Chi-huey said that Wong Yu-shioh was motivated by the death of her aunt, who lost a battle with breast cancer, and hoped to help fight the disease through her investment in OBI Pharma, adding that he regrets the omission.
OBI Pharma shares yesterday gained 1.57 percent to close at NT$420 in Taipei trading. The shares have plummeted from this year’s high of NT$718 on Feb. 19.
The company reported a net loss of NT$1.063 billion (US$32.4 million) for last year, or NT$5.66 in losses per share, company data showed.
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