Hon Hai chairman planning an early retirement, in 2008

Terry Kuo (郭台銘), founding chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), plans to retire and play golf when he turns 58 in seven years, an unusual step in a country where many tycoons run their companies far into old age.

Kuo plans to groom a successor from among business unit heads to take over all daily operations in three years at the company, Taiwan's largest maker of personal computer connectors and cases.

His son and daughter aren't candidates.

Many companies in Taiwan are family-owned and management passes to children. Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) is still running his company's daily operations at 84.

"The industry is changing rapidly and the business requires a lot of energy," said Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding (丁憲文).

Kuo will stay on as an adviser, Ding said.

The planned retirement was previously reported in a Chinese-language newspaper.