Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday announced major leadership changes at its subsidiaries as part of plans to improve governance by separating ownership from management.
Group chairman Tsai Hong-tu (蔡宏圖) has vacated the chairmanship of Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the company’s flagship unit, with the post to be filled by Huang Diao-kuei (黃調貴), who had served as vice chairman at the nation’s largest insurer, Cathay Financial said after its shareholders’ meeting.
Cathay Financial also promoted new president and vice presidents from within its ranks of senior managers, while Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰產險) also announced new chairman and president appointments.
Last year at a shareholders’ meeting Tsai said that Cathay Financial’s founding Tsai family would take a secondary role in managing day-to-day operations, which would be the responsibility of a management team of industry experts.
Tsai added that his children would not chair Cathay Financial’s subsidiaries.
Cathay Financial yesterday said that earnings per share performance this year could exceed last year’s NT$3.79 amid diminished concerns about foreign exchange losses from an appreciating New Taiwan dollar.
Separately, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) shareholders yesterday approved plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2 per share.
At the company’s annual general meeting, shareholders also agreed to a proposal to expand the number of independent director seats from four to six to help improve corporate governance.
Including three board seats occupied by Taipei City Government appointees, the nine outside directors now have majority representation on the company’s 15-seat board, Fubon Financial said.
Meanwhile, Shin Kong Financial Holding Co’s (新光金控) general meeting proceeded smoothly, ending rumors of a proxy fight between majority owners dissatisfied with the company’s earnings slump.
Shin Kong Financial chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) and allies received the bulk of the ballots in a board of directors election, with newly appointed president Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) also securing a seat.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
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