Evergreen Marine Corp’s (長榮海運) proposed capital reduction was yesterday approved by shareholders, despite an objection from a major shareholder, Evergreen International Corp (長榮國際).
About 79 percent of the company’s shareholders attending its annual general meeting in Taipei approved the proposal, enabling Evergreen Marine to reduce its capitalization by 60 percent and return NT$31.7 billion to shareholders, or NT$6 per share, the company said.
Evergreen International Corp, which holds a 4.96 percent stake in Evergreen Marine, objected to the proposal, with its attorney, Wu Chu-chun (吳祝春), saying before the vote that if Evergreen Marine thinks its capital is more than sufficient, it should retire its treasury stocks rather than conduct a capital reduction.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (集保) data showed that about 260,000 minor Evergreen Marine shareholders own 516 million shares, with each shareholder owning 1,980 shares on average.
A conservative estimate shows that after the capital reduction, about 130,000 minor shareholders would each own fewer than 1,000 shares, and with this low number of shares, they would find it inconvenient to trade the stock on the market, Evergreen International said.
Evergreen International said that it doubted Evergreen Marine had decided to reduce its capital to benefit major shareholders.
“Is it possible that major shareholders who have purchased Evergreen Marine’s convertible bonds can take advantage of this opportunity and make significant profit from getting their cash back without paying any tax? Is it possible for them to obtain shares through their convertible bonds later and thus obtain a greater share of the profit that belongs to all shareholders?” Evergreen International said in a statement.
In response, Evergreen Marine vice president Wu Kuang-hui (吳光輝) said that the shipper decided to conduct the 60 percent capital reduction because its common stock equity would fall to 7 percent, in line with the ratios of other major global shippers.
“We made profits of NT$238.4 billion last year and NT$109.8 billion in the first quarter, and we will not purchase new vessels in the near term. We are reducing capital mainly to cut idle money,” Wu said.
The capital reduction would not prevent Evergreen Marine from implementing new investment plans and would not increase its capital in the short term, or it would face severe criticism from investors, he said.
At the shareholders’ meeting, Evergreen Marine president Eric Hsieh (謝惠全) said he still holds an upbeat outlook regarding the company’s revenue growth for the whole of this year, adding that inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should not affect the shipping industry significantly.
In addition, inflation would not stop consumers from buying daily necessities, and since sea liners mostly transport necessities, cargo demand would not slow down, while Russia and Ukraine do not make up a big share of the container market, Hsieh said.
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,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS