TCC Group (台泥集團) chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允) died early yesterday of severe head injuries sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs at a Taipei hotel on Saturday night.
Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥), the flagship subsidiary of TCC Group, announced that Koo, 63, had died at 6:20am.
The accident occurred at the Regent Taipei (晶華酒店), where Koo had been attending a wedding banquet. The hotel yesterday lowered the corporate flags flying in front to half-mast in honor of Koo.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
Sources said the Taipei Police Department is investigating Koo’s death, and yesterday called in two eyewitnesses and asked for the hotel for its ecurity camera footage.
The nation’s largest cement maker yesterday appointed board director Nelson Chang (張安平) to replace Koo as chairman.
The board of Taiwan Cement called a special meeting to put Chang, Koo’s brother-in law, who is also chief executive officer of LDC Hotels & Resorts Group (雲朗觀光集團), in charge of the 71-year-old company.
Photo: Wang I-hung, Taipei Times
Chang was also appointed chairman of two Taiwan Cement affiliates — China Synthetic Rubber Corp (CSRC, 中國合成橡膠) and Taiwan Prosperity Chemical Corp (TPCC, 信昌化學工業).
He previously served as vice chairman of Taiwan Cement and Chia Hsin Cement Corp (嘉新水泥).
“Taiwan Cement’s operation target for this year will not change and we will continue working on Koo’s “original plans” [for the whole group], Chang told reporters after the board meeting.
He also said that he was upbeat about the company’s sales outlook for this year.
Leslie Koo came from one of the largest and most prominent families in Taiwan, the Koos of Lukang. He was the second son of Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), a former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, who died in 2005 at the age of 88.
Leslie Koo had led Taiwan Cement since 2003, transforming the company into the sixth-largest cement maker in China by capacity and the 12th-largest globally.
Taiwan Cement saw its net profit in the first three quarters of last year soar 13.63 percent to NT$4.55 billion (US$144.8 million).
Shares of Taiwan Cement yesterday gained 2.29 percent to close at NT$35.75 in Taipei trading after Chang’s announcement, while the benchmark increased 0.99 percent to 9,424.05 points.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS