EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) was removed from his post yesterday, in the latest fallout from an escalating struggle between heirs to Evergreen Group (長榮集團) founder Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) as they vie to control the NT$400 billion (US$12.14 billion) shipping and transportation conglomerate.
Former Evergreen Steel Corp (長榮鋼鐵) chairman Steve Lin (林寶水) has been tapped to take the helm at EVA Airways following an extraordinary board meeting, the nation’s second-largest airline said in a regulatory filing.
Lin, a 40-year veteran at Evergreen Group, had served as chairman of EVA Airways between 2005 and 2011.
Photo: Wang Yi-hung, Taipei Times
During Lin’s chairmanship, the airline weathered the global financial crisis and then-surging oil prices, recording earnings per share of NT$3.69 for 2010.
“In light of ongoing disputes, the board has decided to return management control of EVA Air to an industry expert,” Lin said at a news conference at the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp.
In a statement issued through his lawyer, Chang Kuo-wei raised concerns about possible disruption to the airline’s operation following a sudden change in leadership.
He also questioned whether the process conforms to procedural compliance, according to the statement.
Chang said in the statement he regretted that the executors of his father’s will and other heirs had gone against the wishes of the late Chang Yung-fa, who passed away on Jan. 20.
The succession battle between heirs to the conglomerate began when Chang Kuo-wei last month revealed a will left by his father, before the family agreed on the succession issue.
Chang Kuo-wei said that his father’s will had named him as successor to the Evergreen Group chairmanship and sole inheritor of Chang Yung-fa’s estate, worth billions of New Taiwan dollars.
Subsequently, Chang Yung-fa’s eldest son, Chang Kuo-hua (張國華), led his two brothers by his father’s first wife in leveraging their 16.31 percent combined stake in EVA Airways to challenge Chang Kuo-wei’s claim, backed by a smaller 14.37 percent stake.
Using their superior controlling stake, an extraordinary board meeting late last month was called to dissolve the group’s top management team, effectively ending Chang Kuo-wei’s one-day reign as Evergreen Group chairman.
The family feud continued, with the elder Chang brothers holding yet another extraordinary board meeting to remove Chang Kuo-wei’s chairmanship at EVA Airways.
In an interview with the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Chang Kuo-wei said that he did his best to carry out his father’s will, and that he will let others assess his track record at EVA Airways.
Looking ahead, Chang said that he has no regrets, and plans to take a break from the aviation industry, the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
RSS