Investors yesterday welcomed a proposed new management team for China Development Financial Holding Corp, with government officials and pundits saying that the arrangement signaled a balance of power within the company's shareholding structure.
After claiming the highest amount of board seats, the Ministry of Finance and KGI Securities Co yesterday jointly recommended Chen Mu-tsai (陳木在), chairman of the Bank of Taiwan and KGI president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) to serve as chairmen of the China Development Financial Holding Corp and its subsidiary China Development Industrial Bank respectively.
Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday that Chen Mu-tsai will be the most qualified candidate, designated by the ministry with one third of the board seats, to head China Development, if a majority of support is garnered at the company's reshuffled board meeting.
Lin made the remark after a breakfast meeting with the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) legislative caucus. He said that the ministry, KGI and Diana Chen's (陳敏薰) Lilontex Corp have each secured a sizable amount of board seats and votes at the company's board election on Monday, which may empower the three to negotiate or elect a new top management team for the next three-year term.
Both nominations, however, require a further endorsement from the company's new board, which Lilontex will be entitled to call for a vote before April 20 since it garnered the highest votes on Monday.
The government and KGI Securities each secured seven seats on China Development's newly elected 21-member board on Monday, while chairwoman Diana Chen and her family have four seats.
Hsu Chen-min (許振明), a professor of economics at National Taiwan University, said that Chen Mu-tsai, who also doubles as chairman of the Bankers Association of the ROC, is a senior banker with recognized experience.
Hsu also expressed confidence in Koo for his transition from securities firms to industrial banking businesses as a policy-maker.
But Chen Mu-tsai may face many challenges ahead since he's never headed any private banks, especially a "financial monster" that was formerly under the control of KMT treasurer Liu Tai-yin (劉泰英) and went through numerous internal infighting among its factions, Hsu said.
"Chen Mu-tsia should draw a clear line between his government-designated background and his professionalism while taking the helm of China Development," Hsu said.
"The nominations at least put an end to the company's power struggle for the time being, bringing stability, and easing investors' concerns," said George Wu (吳裕良), a research analyst with Primasia Securities Co.
Wu, however, expressed a less-than-optimistic view toward the new management reshuffle, saying that the government should gradually step out of China Development's management and ownership by releasing government-owned shares to the market and accelerating its privatization plan.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS