The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday asked Tatung Co (大同) to submit the minutes of a controversial shareholders’ meeting within five days as a dispute over the legality of its board election on Tuesday raged on.
Tatung has applied to the ministry to register its new board members, but the ministry cannot decide whether to approve it, as the company did not provide the minutes of the meeting, Department of Commerce Director-General May Lee (李鎂) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The ministry on Thursday told Tatung to submit supplementary documents within five days or the ministry would return its application, Lee said.
Tatung could apply again, but it is supposed to complete the registration within 15 days after the board election, she said.
Shanyuan Group (三圓建設) chairman Wang Kuang-hsiang (王光祥), who leads a group of minority shareholders, on Thursday urged the ministry not to approve Tatung’s application, saying the company breached the rights of 27 shareholders by depriving them of their voting rights.
Given the controversy over the board election, the ministry would ask for the opinions of Tatung’s management, minority shareholders and other governing agencies, such as the Financial Supervisory Commission, Lee said.
If the ministry decides not to approve Tatung’s registration list, it would order the company to hold another election, she said.
If Tatung refuses to do so within a given period, its board of directors shall be discharged as their term has exceeded three years, according to Article 195 of the Company Act (公司法), Lee said.
“We will address the matter cautiously, as some issues are unprecedented, such as the company canceling the voting rights of dozens of shareholders who together own more than a 50 percent stake,” Lee said.
While Wang’s lawyer, Chuang Cheng (莊正), on Tuesday said that shareholders would apply to the ministry to hold a special shareholders’ meeting to defend their rights, Lee said the ministry has not received their application.
Three of Tatung’s shareholders, which also are subsidiaries of Shanyuan Group, applied to the ministry to hold a special meeting to elect new board members as they did not agree with the firm’s decision not to distribute any cash dividend, but the ministry rejected their application, saying it was not necessary, Lee said.
“This time, we will review the case more thoroughly,” she said.
“While Tatung claimed some shareholders used money from other Chinese investors to buy Tatung shares, no shareholder would admit that,” Lee said.
If shareholders holding a combined 50 percent stake for more than three months plan to hold a special meeting, they could convene a meeting without the ministry’s approval, she added.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS