The struggle between the heirs to Evergreen Group (長榮集團) yesterday escalated as the three older brothers reportedly took drastic measures to undermine their younger brother’s accession to the helm of the family-run shipping and transportation empire.
The dramatic shift came two months after Evergreen Group founder Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) died on Jan. 20 and left a December 2014 will that named his youngest son, Chang Kuo-wei, (張國煒), chairman of Eva Airways (長榮航空) and the only son of his second wife, as his successor and the sole inheritor of his estate worth billions of New Taiwan dollars.
Chang Yung-fa’s eldest son, Chang Kuo-hua (張國華), led his two brothers by his father’s first wife in moving to dissolve the group’s top management team during an extraordinary board meeting, effectively stripping Chang Kuo-wei of the chairmanship, local media said, without naming sources.
In the absence of a chairman or management team, senior executives are to be dispatched to oversee the conglomerate’s subsidiaries, reports said.
The move reportedly aimed to deny Chang Kuo-wei leadership of the group after he allegedly disclosed their father’s will before the family agreed on the succession issue, the media said.
As the chairmanship is not protected by the law, disputes might boil down to the size of stakes held by rival heirs, reports said.
An Evergreen Group filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed that the three older brothers hold stakes of 34.7 percent and 54.56 percent respectively in the group’s main subsidiaries, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) and Evergreen International Storage & Transportation Corp (榮運), compared with 6.83 percent and 2.3 percent held by Chang Kuo-wei.
Chang Kuo-wei might even lose the chairmanship of EVA Airways, reports said.
He holds a 14.67 percent stake in the airline, compared with 31.65 percent held by his stepbrothers, who might seek to oust him during the company’s board meeting next month, or during a board of directors election scheduled for June, reports said.
A move to oust Chang Kuo-wei from the airline would require support from independent board members, who were installed under his watch, reports said.
Chang Kuo-wei could also seek endorsement from foreign institutional investors, who hold a 26.38 percent stake in EVA Airways and can forge alliances with others to bolster his stake in the airline by NT$4 billion (US$119.16 million), reports said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS