Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (遠東航空) chairman Chang Kang-wei (張綱維) on Wednesday announced his intention to leverage his stakeholding to take seats on the board of COTA Commercial Bank (三信商銀) ahead of a board election at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting today.
Chang, who since 2001 has accumulated a 4 percent stake in the lender, is confident that he can swing enough votes to secure either three board of director seats or two independent director seats with the help of proxy solicitation firms, he said at a news conference in Taipei.
Chang accused COTA chairman Liao Song-Yue (廖松岳) of spreading false rumors suggesting that Far Eastern would cease operations in an effort to stop the takeover.
“My involvement is motivated by the desire to improve governance at COTA Commercial Bank,” Chang said.
COTA has become a prime target for heavyweight investors, as captialization of the 102-year-old lender is estimated at about NT$6.3 billion (US$210.08 million), compared with total assets of more than NT$150 billion, local media have reported.
New Taipei City-based residential property developer Pau Jar Group (寶佳機構) has also expressed interest in taking two seats on the lender’s board.
Chang was optimistic that Pau Jar would call off its efforts at the election, as it is a law-abiding company, he said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission earlier this month told the real-estate giant — which has been accumulating large stakes in several financial holding companies and banks — that it should concentrate investment in that sector and limit efforts to appoint board directors to a single bank of a financial holding company.
The commission has not found procedural irregularities at COTA, it said.
A number of investor factions have announced 28 candidates for 12 board director seats and three independent director seats, regulatory filings showed.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six