Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has decided to withdraw from the board of directors of solar cell developer Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), the solar energy firm said yesterday.
Motech, one of Taiwan’s leading solar cell makers, said new directors would be elected to its board at its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 13, and TSMC does not have any representatives on the list of candidates.
AMBITIONS
TSMC’s decision to exit Motech’s board of directors reflected its decision to exit from the solar energy business, market analysts said.
According to Motech’s annual report for last year, TSMC has had two seats on the solar cell maker’s board.
Despite its desire to get out of the solar energy business, TSMC is still Motech’s largest shareholder.
It now holds 58.32 million shares, or about a 12 percent stake in Motech, after disposing of a 6 percent stake in the company in November last year, and TSMC said it would continue to unload its shares in an orderly manner.
Before deciding to retreat from Motech’s board of directors, TSMC closed its own solar energy operations — TSMC Solar — in August last year, saying that its solar business was “no longer economically sustainable.”
Motech said TSMC’s stake in the company had become a pure financial investment rather than a way to satisfy solar energy development ambitions and its withdrawal from Motech’s board would not likely have a negative impact on the solar cell company’s operations.
In addition to TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the second largest chipmaker in Taiwan, resigned from Motech’s board of directors in January.
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