China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控) yesterday reshuffled its 12-member board at an annual shareholders’ meeting, with government-appointed candidates taking up three seats.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF), originally entitled to one board seat with a 5.51 percent stake in the financial services provider, confirmed earlier that it secured at least three seats following negotiations with the company’s biggest private stakeholder, the Koo family.
The new board re-elected incumbent chairman Chen Mu-tsai (陳木在), the financial service provider said in a press statement released after the closed-door board meeting.
At the shareholders’ meeting, two fundraising proposals to issue up to 1.8 million total shares with a price higher than its face value of NT$10 each were also approved.
Up to 6 million new shares will be released via private placement, the company’s minutes showed.
The company will wait until “its share price rebounds to a reasonable level” to execute the fundraising plans, whose proceeds will be used to fund its expansion into the Chinese market, company executive vice president Simon Dzeng (曾垂紀) told reporters at the sidelines of the shareholders’ meeting.
“With the proceeds at around NT$20 billion [US$621.3 million], we hope to acquire a potential Chinese partner within the next year,” Dzeng added.
China Development Financial doesn’t rule out the possibility of swapping shares with its Chinese partner, but the Taipei-based firm will never relinquish its controlling stake, he added. Dzeng reiterated the company’s positive stance on Taipei District Court’s decision on Tuesday of appointing three temporary managers to take over the daily operations of Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券) and oust the incumbent management supported by its chairman Chang Ping-chao (張平沼). Chang refused to acknowledge a reshuffled management dominated by China Development Financial with a controlling 42.9 percent stake in June last year.
Chu Jaw-chyuan (朱兆銓), a temporary manager at the firm, is expected to mediate between both stakeholding parties.
Meanwhile, other financial institutions also held their annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday, six of which reshuffled their boards.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial service company, yesterday said, in exchange filings, that its lawsuit-bound board member Tsai Cheng-yu (蔡鎮宇) has resigned from his board seat and thus his capacity as vice chairman of both its subsidiaries, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) and Cathay Life Insurance Corp (國泰人壽).
Tsai’s three other brothers, including company chairman Tsai Hong-tu (蔡宏圖), remained on the board. After its board was reshuffled yesterday, the majority of board seats at Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) were controlled by government-appointed board members, who took up a total of eight seats, while its private stakeholders took the remaining seven seats, its exchange filings showed.
Hua Nan’s incumbent chairman Lin Ming-cheng (林明成) will step down from his post, but will remains as the bank’s vice chairman.
The finance ministry is expected to appoint a new chairman to replace Lin by next Wednesday.
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) shareholders, meanwhile, yesterday approved a board proposal to establish a remuneration committee — the first financial firm among its local peers to have a third-party committee evaluate the salaries of executives.
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