LCD panel maker Innolux Corp (群創光電) yesterday nominated four candidates for Cheng Mei Material Technology Corp’s (誠美材料) board of directors as it vies for dominance in an upcoming election.
Innolux’s move ignited a new battle for dominance in Cheng Mei’s seven-member board. Innolux, which owns a 6.72 percent stake in Cheng Mei, has been absent from the latter’s board for five years.
“The nomination aims to stabilize the company’s upstream supply chain and to safeguard the interests of the companies’ shareholders, creditors, employees, clients and suppliers,” Innolux said in a statement.
The Miaoli-based panel maker nominated vice president Jeffrey Yang (楊弘文) and investor relations department director Liu Chao-shien (劉昭賢) for board director.
It also nominated GIO Optoelectronics Corp (啟耀光電) president Pauline Liu (劉玄達) and Wellstech Optical Co (華德光電) chairman Hsu Li-yen (許立言) for independent director.
Cheng Mei is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on April 26 to reshuffle its board of directors.
The company’s founding chairman, Ho Jau-yang (何昭陽), is once again facing risk of losing leadership of the firm. He was deprived of his chairmanship on Jan. 14 in an extraordinary board meeting controlled by then-vice chairwoman Yeh Mei-li (葉美麗). Ho returned to his position a month later after a court ruled that his ouster was illegal.
Yeh said she would not run for board director and would simply be an investor at the firm, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
She threw her support behind Innolux’s bid to control the board and help Cheng Mei through financial difficulties, the report said.
Cheng Mei is likely to be restricted from trading soon, as the company’s accountant holds a “reserved” attitude about its financial statement for last year.
The accountant is skeptical that Cheng Mei would remain viable.
The company posted losses of NT$578.33 million (US$18.78 million) for last year, narrowing from NT$1.22 billion in 2017. That translated into losses of NT$0.87 per share last year, improving from losses of NT$2.18 per share.
Cheng Mei shares yesterday rose 3.4 percent to NT$12.15 in Taipei.
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