The scandal-ridden Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (
A company executive made the remarks yesterday after the government decided on Wednesday night to send a team of independent auditors to review the fixed-line operator's finances.
"I hope to build up the com-pany's corporate governance to enhance financial transparency and corporate communication [to share-holders]," Wang Lin-tai (王令台), vice chairman of Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, told a press conference.
full cooperation
Wang said the company would fully cooperate with the government to maintain its operations, while working to minimize any negative impact from the financial woes of its parent company, Rebar Asia Pacific Group (
A board shakeup is expected to top its agenda in an extraordinary board meeting today, with the aim of replacing chairwoman Wang Chin She-ying (
The Rebar Group controls 22 out of the telecom company's 33-seat board. The Wang family is suspected to have used its influence on the board to misappropriate NT$30 billion (US$915 million) from Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom.
The government holds a 17.21-percent stake in Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom through the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA,
Legislators have taken the government to task for administrative negligence and lack of oversight, leading to the telecom company's current difficulties.
While both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Communications Commission had reached a consensus on the need to audit Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, the two agencies admitted on Wednesday that they had no idea what its current net worth was.
An unlisted company, Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom is not obligated to publicly disclose its financial statements.
Government Information Office (GIO) Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said earlier yesterday that the government had no intention of taking over the Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom.
Not a takeover
"We are `supervising' it, not `taking over,'" Cheng said. "And the only reason we are supervising it is to make sure that government's shares are secure. That's all."
Cheng's comments came in the wake of a report by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday that Wang Lin-tai was planning to give up ownership of the company. The report also said that TRA may take over, without citing sources.
Cheng dismissed the report, saying: "The government has no plan [of taking over]. Moreover, the TRA only owns slightly more than NT$8 billion of the company; [it is] not the major shareholder," he said. "It is my understanding that the company is operating as normal."
The Ministry of Finance said last night that the Wang family should relinquish 10 out of its 22 board seats at today's extraordinary board meeting, allowing state shareholders a controlling power in the board, the Central News Agency reported citing unnamed ministry officials.
But Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said the meeting would not deal with the re-election of the company's board of directors and supervisors, according to CNA.
The report cited Shih as saying that the meeting would instead focus on how to perform financial auditing on the firm.
Despite the recent turmoil, Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom yesterday claimed that its subscriber numbers were still growing at a rate of 1,000 to 1,500 users per day.
And that's despite competition from Far EasTone Telecommun-ications Co (
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS