Text / Liang Renwei, Lu Jisheng
Taiwan’s largest manufacturer of precious and rare metal materials, Koyoko, broke out in a dispute over management rights. In recent years, Taiwan Steel Group, which has been actively conquering capital in the capital market, and Koyoko’s chairman Ma Jianyong were originally partners. Why are they now turning their heads against each other? At the end of December, before the two parties held their respective stock meetings, the war may not end in a short time.
The dispute over the operating rights of the OTC company Koyotech has become more and more chaotic. Not only has the chairman of the board of directors made a double contract, but the company has sent independent directors supported by the two companies of Taiwan Iron and Steel Alliance. Supervise the election. Who is in charge and which shareholder meeting counts? It depends on whether the legal person director Yujing company’s re-appointment of representatives on the company’s board of directors on November 5 is valid, and whether the independent directors who have been dismissed by the company before can still exercise the powers of independent directors.
Amidst the chaos, discussions also exploded in the Legislative Yuan on November 22. DPP legislator Wu Bingrui pointed out that “a certain group” used a large number of purchase powers of attorney, pledged equity to borrow from public stock banks and other tactics to continuously intervene in listed companies. The right to operate is like a stock market bald eagle; Guo Guowen, a party legislator, named the group, and the group is the Taiwan Iron and Steel League that has intervened in the dispute over the right to operate the Guangyang Branch.
Regarding the allegation of “pledged borrowing to buy stocks,” Taigang Chairman Wang Jiongfen did not deny. He told this magazine: “Pledge of equity is a legal and reasonable financing practice, and there is no problem.” If we take the current 13 listed cabinets controlled by Taigang. From a company perspective, as of the end of October, Taiyuan Iron and Steel or the same group legal person has pledged a certain percentage of the shares of 7 of these companies. In particular, the 30,000 Zhang Jinggang held by Taiyuan Iron and Steel has pledged 100% of the shares, and Taiwan Benzene Investment pledged 8.5 Hundreds, accounting for 85% of its holdings, and Taiyuan Iron and Steel holds nearly 30,000 Guantian Steel stocks, and the current pledge ratio is more than 73%.
In fact, Taiwan Steel’s external borrowing can be regarded as the final fuse to detonate this operating rights farce. According to Ma Jianyong, Chairman of Koyo Tech (currently the chairman of the company registration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is still Ma), as the major shareholder of Koyo Tech’s major shareholder, Yujing Company, the foreign investor Gerald (Gerald) has left the market, the backbone of the company is left with the company and Taiwan. The Gangmeng team, therefore, in July this year, he used the opportunity to report business regularly to the chairman of Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group Xie Yumin to inquire about his willingness to re-elect the directors and supervisors early.
“The other party did not reply directly at the time, so I feel bad.” Then Ma Jianyong began to approach the bank to raise funds to buy shares. Unexpectedly, he indirectly learned that “Taiwan Iron and Steel Alliance is also borrowing from three public stock banks to buy shares.” The company sent the board of directors on November 5 to take the lead. Director Hong Benzhan proposed to convene an interim meeting of shareholders at the end of the year to re-elect directors and supervisors in advance. However, the Taiwan Iron and Steel League was clearly prepared. During the meeting, it took out the legal person director Yu Jing’s reassignment letter, and Wang Jiongyu was replaced as Yujing’s legal representative. After obtaining the majority of seats, the provisional motion to dismiss Ma Jianyong, and a chaotic battle began. .
In the process, including the re-appointment of legal person directors, independent director Wu Meihui’s actions considered to be biased towards the Taiwan Iron and Steel League, and even the temporary proposal to replace the chairman, as well as the rationality of the subsequent company’s appointment of Wu Meihui as an independent director, they are all disputes. Points, each also said that it will be clarified by the competent authority. However, if we return to the equity competition, it is currently reported that Taigang League holds about 10% of the equity of Koyo Technology, while the company still holds about 18% of the equity. It must win at the temporary meeting of shareholders. At present, it holds about 7% of the equity of foreign capital. It is still a battleground for the Taiwan Iron and Steel League.
It is understood that in order to gain recognition from foreign investors, TISCO has actively communicated with foreign equity voting advisory institutions such as ISS and Glass Lewis through consulting companies with successful cooperation experience in the past. However, from the perspective of changes in foreign shareholding, In recent years, the companies in which Taigang has entered, seem to be declining in favor of foreign investment.
Taiwan Steel’s stationed company is gradually not favored by foreign investors
Take TISCO, which took the lead in June last year, for example, the shareholding ratio of foreign investors in the company was often between 13 and 16% in the past, and it was still close to 15% at the end of last year. However, as of November 19 this year, it had dropped. To less than 10%. Another example is Taiwan Benzene. At the end of 2018, the foreign shareholding ratio reached nearly 34%. However, after Taigang entered the board of directors in January 2019, the foreign shareholding fell to 27.5% at the end of the year, and now it is only 8.5%. A similar decline in foreign shareholding can also be seen after Taigang took over Ronggang in 2018.
As for the actual operating performance that affects the willingness of foreign investors to hold shares, the performance of the 13 listed companies that have been controlled by Taiyuan Iron and Steel in recent years. On the whole, many companies have indeed improved, but it cannot be said to be very amazing.
Starting from the most direct observation of revenue performance, Taiwan Steel, which is dominated by the iron and steel industry, and Peibo and Jiuyang, which were dominated by the steel industry before 2014, have indeed achieved good revenue growth. For example, Peibo, the average annual revenue in the past three years has increased by nearly 1.4 times compared to before entering the company.
However, the performance of the companies stationed by Taiyuan Steel after 2016 has been relatively bleak. Aside from the short-term companies such as Taibei and Dianxun, at least so far, the companies such as Guantian Steel, Ronggang, Jinggang, etc. The closing performance is generally still in a state of decline compared to before entering the main market.
Source: “Today Weekly” No. 1301
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