Members of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors received annual pay of almost NT$52 million (US$1.77 million) each in 2016, the highest among all the listed companies on the main board, according to statistics released by the Taiwan Stock Exchange last month.
The data showed that TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, paid its board members a total of NT$416 million in 2016, with each receiving NT$51.997 million on average.
Their total pay amounted to only 0.12 percent of the company’s net profit for the year, which was reported at NT$334.25 billion, the data showed.
TSMC board members earned more than those of any other company listed on Taiwan’s main board, according to the exchange.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光), the world’s largest semiconductor testing and packaging service provider, was the second-highest paying listed company, offering annual pay of NT$44.48 million to each of its directors in 2016, the data showed.
Board members at Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc, received average annual pay of NT$41.28 million, which was the third-highest amount, according to the data.
Among the top-10 listed companies in terms of board member pay were tire maker Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co (正新) and food brand Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一), both in the old-economy sector, which paid NT$20 million on average to each of their board members in 2016, data showed.
Financial firms in the top 10 — CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) — also paid their board members NT$20 million on average.
Meanwhile, property developer Tidehold Development Co (台火開發) paid almost all of its NT$4.097 million in net profit to its board of directors in 2016, with the total hitting NT$3.768 million.
Board members of information service provider Digital China Holdings Ltd (神州數碼) each received NT$26.07 million on average in 2016 for a total of NT$200 million, which accounted for almost a quarter of the company’s earnings that year, according to the data.
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