State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) yesterday reshuffled its 15-member board, with the government seizing nine seats as well as the appointment of three government-nominated independent directors.
Incumbent chairman Chen Yu-chang (陳裕璋), after garnering the highest number of votes, will retain his chairmanship for another three years until mid-May, 2012.
The Ministry of Finance, the company’s biggest shareholder, was previously expected to snap up 10 of the seats, but lost a total of three seats to private-sector directors, including Chen An-fu (陳安甫), a manager from MSIG Mingtai Insurance Co (明台產險).
First Financial president Chien Ming-ren (簡明仁) attributed yesterday’s vote to the smaller stake in the company owned by foreign investors, who often throw their support behind government-nominated directors. The stake owned by foreign investors dropped to 16 percent in mid-March from a high of more than 30 percent late last year, Chien said.
To the government’s surprise, Chen An-fu, representing his own company Global Vision (全球通) — a holding company with a working capital of NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) — solicited the second-highest number of votes at yesterday’s meeting.
“With my experience in both the life and non-life insurance businesses, I hope to be able to make a big contribution to First Financial,” Chen told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Among the five supervisors seats, the government successfully won four via Bank of Taiwan’s (臺灣銀行) shareholding.
The meeting also approved the nomination of three independent directors Lee Tsun-siou (李存修), a finance professor at National Taiwan University, Yophy Huang (黃耀輝), an associate professor of taxation at National Taipei College of Business, and Liu Day-yang (劉代洋), a finance professor at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
First Financial’s market value was NT$126.69 billion at the close yesterday. Its share price closed at NT$20.55 on the local bourse, up 19.13 percent this year.
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