In a rare example of shareholder activism in Taiwan, a group of domestic investors is appealing to international fund managers to help it wrest control of a $2bn petrochemicals company from its chairman.
James Kuo, chairman of Lea Lea Group, a Taiwanese textiles and construction conglomerate, and two other investors are trying to unseat Shen Chin-jing, chairman of China Petrochemical Development Corporation, which has a $2bn market capitalisation on the Taiwan stock exchange.
“Shen’s likely violations of fiduciary duties and total disregard of corporate governance have caused shareholders serious concerns,” Mr Kuo wrote in a letter to other shareholders ahead of CPDC’s annual meeting, scheduled for June 27.