CDF (2883.TW) held a shareholders’ meeting on June 14, in which the Board of Directors were re-elected for the seventh term. The nine director's seats comprise common directors Chia-juch Chang, Alan Wang, Yu-ling Kuo, Mark Wei, and Daw-yi Hsu, natural-person director Paul Yang, and independent directors Tyzz-jiun Duh, Hsiou-wei Lin, and James Tai. A cash dividend of NT$0.3/share was approved.
CDF immediately convened the new Board of Directors to elect Mr. Chia-juch Chang as chairman and to announce a number of major new recruits at subsidiaries, including Amy Tsao as new President of KGI Bank, William Ho as new President of CDIB Capital Group, and Osama S. Abbasi as new Vice Chairman of KGI Securities.
New KGI Bank President Amy Tsao has served in the financial sector for over twenty years and was formerly a Branch Manager at Nomura Taiwan and Head of Merchant Banking and Deputy Head of Corporate Banking at Citibank. She initially focused on corporate credit, syndicated loans, and project loans in the commercial banking field, later moving into investment banking with a focus on corporate M&A and capital market fund-raising. Ms. Tsao’s background sets her apart as one of few bank presidents with experience in both indirect and direct finance. With expertise in all aspects of corporate finance, Ms. Tsao will help KGI Bank develop a more comprehensive corporate banking business model at a time when Taiwanese businesses are becoming increasingly active on the global scene. Moreover, as a certified lawyer from the State of New York in the US, Amy Tsao will be able to strengthen risk management under the strategy of international development, at a time when legal compliance and anti-money laundering principles are levelling higher standards for financial institutions to adhere to. CDF believes that with Ms.Tsao’s rich experience in finance and a world-class vision, she will help navigate KGI Bank toward the next phase of growth.
CDIB Capital Group’s new President William Ho previously served as a CVC Asia partner and has accumulated over twenty-five years of experience in private equity investment. As CDIB Capital Group has successfully transformed itself into an asset management company, its future task now is to expand assets under management. During his tenure at CVC Asia, Mr. Ho raised more than US$10bn to invest in over 100 projects in such sectors as electronics, retail, education, and healthcare, making him a veteran in raising funds and picking investment targets. With Mr. Ho on board, CDIB Capital Group looks to him to transform the incumbent team into a top-tier private equity fund raising and investment unit. Outgoing president Mr. Chun-huei Ho will next serve as Executive Vice President of CDF and as Board Director of CDIB Capital Group. Mr. Ho will act as Head of CDIB Capital Group’s Grand Healthcare Business Group and Chairman of the Biomedicine Fund, pushing for private equity fund development in the healthcare field.
New Vice Chairman of KGI Securities Osama S. Abbasi was formerly CEO of Credit Suisse Asia-Pacific and has over twenty-five years of experience in investment banking and asset management. With the expertise in various aspects of international investment banking, Mr. Abbasi was previously based in New York, London and Hong Kong. KGI Securities is a pioneer among Taiwanese peers in overseas deployment and has set up offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. Mr. Abbasi will leverage his rich international experience to lead KGI Securities to another peak in overseas operations.
Outgoing KGI Bank President Mr. Li-cheng Chang will next serve as Executive Vice President of CDF and Head of Strategic Planning, tasked with devising development strategies for CDF. He will double as spokesperson. During his tenure as President of KGI Bank, Mr. Chang not only succeeded in consolidating the merger of banks and the efficient replacement of the core system for the bank, but he also launched the first officially-approved regulatory sandbox experiment project in Taiwan, creating for KGI Bank a new image of financial innovation. All told, Mr. Chang has set a very solid foundation for KGI Bank’s future development, and it is CDF’s hope that he will continue to leverage his familiarity with banking and securities businesses to set up cross-selling projects among CDF subsidiaries. Outgoing Head of Strategic Planning and Spokesperson Eddy Chang will next focus on running CDIB Capital Group’s business development unit, in particular private equity fund raising and investor relations service.
Thus, CDF has reshuffled key executive staff and recruited personnel of international caliber into the management team so as to meet its strategic needs. This means that after banking, insurance, securities, and asset management have been put into place as the four engines of CDF’s development framework, the company is more ready than ever for forward action. Going forward, CDF will focus on overseas deployment and acceleration of internationalization as its business development strategies, which it expects will support a new wave of growth. Such a step forward is also in line with government policy.
