Friday’s announcement that Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (FII, 富士康工業互連網) chairman Timothy Chen (陳永正) had resigned took many by surprise.
FII, an 85 percent-held subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) that manufactures casing, network equipment and servers, named vice president and general counsel Li Junqi (李軍旗) to replace Chen, according to Hon Hai’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Li would serve as chairman until July 9, 2020, Hon Hai said in the filing.
FII did not explain the reasons for Chen’s departure, which came just four months after he helped launch its initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
After making its Shanghai debut on June 8 at 13.77 yuan per share to raise 27 billion yuan (US$3.89 billion), FII’s shares tanked until they hit 11.11 yuan on Oct. 19.
The shares on Friday closed at 12.09 yuan.
The sudden change in FII’s top ranks also came amid investor concerns about whether the company can continue its strategy to upgrade its smart manufacturing, build Internet platforms to connect factories and invest in cloud computing and 5G wireless technologies, even though executives had over the past few months been reassuring investors that the company was on track.
Hon Hai’s filing said Chen also left FII’s management board, which he joined in July last year and was set to remain through July 2020.
FII is scheduled to hold a special shareholders’ meeting on Nov. 9 in Shenzhen to elect Ed Wu (吳惠鋒) and Li Jie (李傑) to its board of directors, the filing said.
Wu joined Hon Hai in 2001 and built the server and storage business at the company. He also served as chairman of Ennoconn Corp (樺漢), an industrial computer manufacturing unit of Hon Hai, from 2016 to March.
Li Jie is an industrial artificial intelligence expert.
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