Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) board of directors yesterday picked a new chairman to succeed Terry Gou (郭台銘) after the latter vowed to quit his chairmanship to run for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination for the presidential elections next year.
Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc (京鼎) chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) was elected by a new board of directors approved by shareholders at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
At a Hon Hai investor conference last week, Liu said that the company is concentrating its efforts on digital transformation and improvement through the deployment of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, 5G and the Industrial Internet of Things, while exploiting internal resources such as big data.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“We are striving to become a technology solutions provider,” Liu said.
Hon Hai is to focus on integrating semiconductors, software and Internet-related products, Gou said at a news conference yesterday.
The company’s new board of directors also includes Gou, Hon Hai executive vice president Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘), Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (富士康工業互連網) vice chairman Li Jie (李傑), Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd (鴻騰精密) chairman Lu Sung-ching (盧松青) and Sharp Corp president and chief executive Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳).
The board elected Li to serve as vice chairman.
Shareholders also approved three independent directors — Taiwan Excellent Brand Association executive director Wang Guo-cheng (王國城), National Taiwan University interim president Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維) and MBK Partners cofounder Kung Kuo-chuan (龔國權).
Despite concerns raised by shareholders over Hon Hai’s prospects when Gou leaves to pursue a political career, Gou said he has placed his trust in his successors and the company’s nine-person operating committee.
Gou said that he sees Taiwan as a company that he should be running.
“I aim to transform Taiwan into Taiwan Inc,” Gou said.
“Taiwan Inc is on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said, adding that the political scene has squeezed out economic actors.
Faced with criticism from shareholders over a promise he made to raise the company’s share price to NT$200 before stepping down as chairman, Gou said that he could not uphold his promise due to external market factors.
Shareholders approved the board’s plan to distribute a dividend of NT$4 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 49.81 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$8.03 last year.
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