Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday said the company is helping Sharp Corp cut its overseas retail joint ventures as part of efforts to improve the troubled Japanese company’s operations.
“Sharp has its financial problems... Once we officially join the company’s board next month, we will carry out a series of measures to help Sharp make a turnaround as soon as possible,” Gou told shareholders during Hon Hai’s annual general meeting at its headquarters in Tucheng District (土城), New Taipei City.
Gou said Hon Hai vice chairman Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) is to attend Sharp’s annual general meeting today, with shareholders expected to approve his appointment as the Japanese firm’s president.
Photo: CNA
Japanese media reported that Hon Hai and its subsidiary, Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準) — which hold a combined 66 percent stake in Sharp — are expected to secure six of Sharp’s nine board seats at the meeting today.
In a bid to lower Sharp’s operating costs, Gou said he plans to withdraw all of Sharp’s investments in joint-venture retail channels overseas, such as Sharp’s joint venture with Taiwanese consumer electronics maker Sampo Corp (聲寶).
Gou said Sharp has too many joint ventures or subsidiaries in overseas markets, and his plan is to help Sharp directly reach consumers in foreign markets instead of through other retailers.
Gou said he is negotiating with the representatives of Roxy Electric Co Ltd — the cofounder of Sharp’s joint venture Sharp Roxy Ltd in Hong Kong — to persuade the firm to dissolve the joint venture.
Sharp does not rule out taking legal action against Roxy Electric to regain its right to sell its products in Hong Kong, he said.
Gou said he aims to accelerate Sharp’s research and development process, turning its patented technologies into commercial products with the aid of Hon Hai’s manufacturing capability, lowering its manufacturing costs and raising its competitiveness.
After Hon Hai officially joins Sharp’s management team next month, the century-old Japanese company will start to evaluate employees’ individual performance instead of as a team like the company used to do, Gou said.
Employees who fail to reach their performance goal will be asked to leave, regardless of their rank or seniority, Gou said, dismissing concern over the departure of a high-ranking Sharp official to join another Japanese flat-panel company as the official is a semiconductor professional, but not a panel expert.
Tai, who also attended Hon Hai’s meeting, told shareholders that after he takes office in Sharp, he plans to set up an overseas headquarters in Shenzhen, China, to be closer to Hon Hai’s manufacturing hub in Asia.
Commenting on the new government’s “New Southbound Policy,” Gou said that Hon Hai has been investing in Southeast Asian countries for at least three years, as the company has to expand its overseas scope due to Taiwan’s limited market demand.
However, Gou added that it would be “unwise” for the government to give up investment opportunities in China, because the country is culturally and geographically close to Taiwan.
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