An amendment to the Company Act (公司法) that passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan yesterday has raised concern among business groups that companies might see an increase in proxy fights.
An amendment to Article 173-1 of the act — which allows shareholders controlling at least half of a company’s shares to call special shareholders’ meetings — is likely to trigger more proxy fights, Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) said.
While the amendment stipulates that only shareholders who have held shares for more than three months are allowed to call special shareholders’ meetings, the revision might hurt corporate governance, as the three-month period is too short, the Chinese-language Apple Daily quoted Lin as saying.
General Chamber of Commerce of the ROC (全國商業總會) chairman Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰) provided a similar view, saying that the amendment might “open the gate” for China-backed activist investors who aim to replace boards of directors at such meetings.
The revised article is also known as the “Tatung clause,” in reference to a series of disputes between activist investors and home appliance maker Tatung Co’s (大同) founding Lin (林) family regarding the company’s business performance, governance and future development.
Over the years, activist investors have tried to gain approval from Tatung’s board of directors to hold special shareholders’ meetings to address the issues, but to no avail.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday did not directly respond to the business groups’ concerns.
However, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that the ministry would need to consult further with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), because Article 43-5 of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) requires shareholders controlling at least half of a listed company’s shares to obtain approval from the board to call special meetings.
It is unclear which law listed companies should follow and the ministry would meet with the FSC to clarify the issue, she said.
As for the fear that China-backed investors could ambush firms, Wang said that a review process for China-related investments is already in place and the ministry would consider complementary measures.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS