Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) yesterday appointed board director Nelson Chang (張安平) as acting chairman after chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允) was admitted to intensive care after falling down a flight of stairs at a Taipei hotel on Saturday.
Chang is Koo’s brother-in-law.
Koo has headed the nation’s largest cement maker since 2003. The company’s board held an extraordinary meeting yesterday at which Chang was also appointed temporary chairman of two Taiwan Cement affiliates — China Synthetic Rubber Corp (CSRC, 中國合成橡膠) and Taiwan Prosperity Chemical Corp (TPCC, 信昌化學工業).
Photo: CNA
“The chairman has been hospitalized and is unable to carry out his duties,” Taiwan Cement said of the board’s decision in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.
Koo fell down a flight of stairs at the Regent Taipei (晶華酒店) on Saturday night while attending a wedding banquet. He was taken to Mackay Memorial Hospital at about 9pm, reports said.
Koo was still in hospital, but his condition has been downgraded, the Central News Agency cited the company as saying yesterday.
Koo, 63, is the second son of the late Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), a former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation.
Taiwan Cement reported sales of NT$89.57 billion (US$2.84 billion) last year, down 4.38 percent from the previous year. Net profit in the first three quarters of last year increased 13.63 percent to NT$4.55 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.23.
Shares of Taiwan Cement closed at NT$34.95 on Friday, up 36.26 percent over the past 12 months, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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