Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc’s (茂迪) shares yesterday plunged after the company announced that chairman Chang Ping-heng (張秉衡) had resigned from his position and from the company’s board due to personal career planning, effective immediately.
The board of directors had elected Steve Tseng (曾永輝), a founding shareholder of Motech, as chairman, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday evening.
Chang, who worked at the firm for eight years and became its chairman in 2016, had led the company as it weathered the ever-changing solar market, Motech said.
The company and all of its employees “express the utmost gratitude and sincere well-wishes” to Chang, the filing said.
The announcement of Chang’s resignation came as Motech posted a second-quarter net loss of NT$2.07 billion (US$67.6 million), or losses per share of NT$3.85.
That was a 199.52 percent drop from the same period last year, while second-quarter revenue fell 21.05 percent year-on-year to NT$4.42 billion, the company said in a separate filing.
Apart from the effects of a worsening industry slump, the quarterly loss also increased as Motech recognized asset impairment losses of NT$823.34 million, following an announcement that it would shut down a solar wafer production line in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) due to rapid market changes.
As the firm’s accumulated losses have exceeded half of its paid-in capital, Motech said it would soon hold a general meeting and report the results to shareholders.
Motech has paid-in capital of NT$5.41 billion.
Tseng helped Motech founder Cheng Fu-tien (鄭福田) establish the firm’s electronic instruments business in the 1990s.
In 2000, after Simon Tsuo (左元淮) returned from the US to join Motech, the three established Motech’s solar business unit.
In 2013, Tseng was elected chairman and became honorary chairman after handing over the position to Chang three years later.
Tseng now faces the challenge of navigating the company in the volatile solar market and delivering good results, as the short-term outlook for the industry continues to look bleak.
Motech shares yesterday closed down 4.23 percent at NT$12.45 in Taipei trading.
They have declined 44.54 percent this year.
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