The Taiwan Monthly
ESG
2017 Corporate Governance Evaluation Results Announced
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) announced that the 4th (2017) Corporate Governance Evaluation has been completed. A total of 1,536 companies, 861 TWSE listed companies and 675 Taipei Exchange (TPEx) listed companies, were evaluated. Those companies were divided into seven groups by score, Top 5%, 6% to 20%, 21% to 35%, 36% to 50%, 51% to 65%, 66% to 80%, and 81% to 100%.
According to TWSE, compared to the 2016 evaluation, the list of companies in the top 20% contains 33 new entries this year, while the list of companies in the top 5% contains 14 new entries. The replacement ratio is 19% and 33%, respectively, both lower than that in the previous year. Moreover, 8 out of the 14 companies that moved into Top 5% this year are new entries for the first time.
Since the implementation of corporate governance evaluation, TWSE listed companies have shown significant improvement in various aspects of corporate governance. For example, regarding the aspects of shareholders’rights, in 2017, the number of companies that adopted electronic voting or voting by poll increased by 53% and 26%, respectively; the number of companies that mandated a director or supervisor candidate nomination system in their articles of incorporation increased by 38%. On the aspect of the board of directors, all TWSE listed companies have independent directors in 2017, and the number of companies that have an audit committee has increased by 45%; as to information disclosure, the number of companies that filed financial statements for the previous year by the end of February has grown to 81 in 2017 from 22 in 2014. In addition, the number of companies that prepare corporate social responsibility reports has reached 336. Data above demonstrates the fact that the corporate governance evaluation system is encouraging listed companies to adopt best practices and international standards. The system is also effectively building corporate governance core values among listed companies.
TWSE further stated that the competent authority has launched the new three-year Corporate Governance Roadmap (2018-2020). In particular, "enhancing the effectiveness of the corporate governance evaluation system" is listed as one of the key tasks under "deepening corporate governance and CSR culture". More qualitative evaluation indicators will be added to the system based on the Roadmap as well as practices of international corporate governance organizations. Examples include: facilitating performance by using a refined scoring system and releasing evaluation results taking into account the differentiation in industries. It is hoped that ongoing refinement of the corporate governance evaluation system will encourage companies to value corporate governance voluntarily in order to enhance the international competitiveness of the Taiwan capital market.
To encourage top performing companies, TWSE and TPEx plan to hold an award ceremony in May to honor the Top 5% companies (43 TWSE listed companies and 34 TPEx listed companies). The results of the 2017 Corporate Governance Evaluation can be found on the TWSE website (http://cgc.twse.com.tw/evaluationCorp/listCh) and the SFI website (http://www.sfi.org.tw/finance/finance1/finance1_1). The results are also available through a link to the Market Observation Post System (http://mops.twse.com.tw/mops/web/index) for easy access.
For further inquiries, please contact Ms. Hsieh at 1124@twse.com.tw .