Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom Co (
The decision came after the board led by acting chairman Springfield Lai (賴春田), appointed by the government, found that around half of Asia Pacific Broadband's capital allegedly had been misappropriated by fugitive Wang You-theng (王又曾) and his family.
The Taipei-based telecom is a subsidiary of Wang's Rebar Asia Pacific Group (
"It is very critical for Asia Pacific to have new investors and new capital joining the company's overhaul efforts," Lai told a press conference yesterday.
"Some foreign companies have expressed interest," Lai said, declining to give details.
The company hopes to make some progress within the next few months, he said.
Asia Pacific Broadband has an unaudited NT$33.2 billion (US$1 billion) in capital, down from the original NT$65.6 billion, Lai said.
The company's financial situation was severe, as most banks either were restricted from granting loans, or unwilling to bankroll the telecom group because of its weak profitability and poor corporate governance, Lai said.
Over the past five years, Asia Pacific Broadband has accumulated around NT$6.2 billion in unpaid payments to telecom equipment companies and maintenance services providers including Alcatel-Lucent.
Asia Pacific Broadband is a fixed-line affiliate of Asia Pacific Telecom Group, which operates Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications Inc (亞太行動寬頻), a mobile operator, and Internet service provider Asia Pacific Online Services Inc (亞太線上).
The fixed-line provider is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder's meeting on April 30, aiming to revamp the board previously controled by the Wang family, which has strongly opposed introducing new investors and carrying out a corporate overhaul, Lai said.
"Board members from Wang family irrationally went against any proposals to improve the company's operation," he said.
The overhaul plan included slashing capital and then increasing capital to the NT$40 billion required by telecom regulations as well as merging the mobile and fixed-line units, Lai said.
The company is scheduled to hold a board meeting on May 4 to elect a new chairman, if the shareholder's meeting at the end of the month goes smoothly.
The company is required to have approval from half of its shareholders to hold a shareholder's meeting. Individual shareholders accounted for 60 percent of the company's 60,000 shareholders, Lai said.
Taiwan Railway Administration (
Asia Pacific Broadband also hopes the proposal of going public will win the approval at the shareholder's meeting.
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