The Taiwan Monthly

ESG

Video of the Top 5% of companies in the 8th Corporate Governance Evaluation is launched online, with benchmarking companies leading the improvement of Corporate Governance!

The TWSE praised companies with outstanding performance in the 8th Corporate Governance Evaluation in order to guide healthy competition among enterprises and shape corporate governance culture. The video praised the top 5% of companies including the speeches of Chairman Huang of the Financial Supervisory Commission and Chairman Hsu of the TWSE as well as the photos of the winning companies, and is already posted on the website of the Corporate Governance Center and WebPro. The link to the video is https://webpro.twse.com.tw/webportal/vod/115/9913876F2E17-A9A3AE76-F77A-11EC-8D93/?categoryId=150.

 

The results were announced on April 28, 2022. This year's Corporate Governance Evaluation focused on the four aspects of "Protecting Shareholder Rights and Interests and Treating Shareholders Equitably," "Enhancing Board Composition and Operation," "Increasing Information Transparency" and “Putting Corporate Social Responsibility into Practice” (now changed to “Promoting Sustainable Development”) which covers a total of 79 indicators to comprehensively evaluate the overall corporate governance status of enterprises.

 

There were 46 TWSE-listed companies and 36 TPEx-listed companies, or a total of 82 companies ranked among the top 5% in the evaluation, and nine TWSE-listed and 10 TPEx-listed companies ranked in the top 5% for eight consecutive sessions. In order to encourage small- and medium-sized companies to be more committed to corporate governance, in the category of "Companies with Market Capitalization of NT$5~10 billion," 11 TWSE-listed companies and three TPEx-listed companies were ranked in the top 5%. Compared with the 7th Evaluation, a total of 23 TWSE/TPEx companies were newly included among the top 5% this year, and the substitution rate reached 28%. According to the statistics, the top 5% of TWSE-listed companies in the 8th Corporate Governance Evaluation had an average EPS of NT$7.58 and an average ROE of 14.33% in 2021, higher than the NT$4.59 average EPS and 9.64% average ROE of all the listed companies evaluated.

 

The TWSE further explained that, due to the impact of the pandemic this year, the award ceremony was canceled and replaced with a video of praise to avoid the risk of cluster infection in the indoor space. The Corporate Governance Evaluation indicators are reviewed every year in order to constantly improve the standards in line with the development trends, regulations and policies of corporate governance at home and abroad. The latest (9th) evaluation indicators, which were released on December 29, 2021, were revised in accordance with the "Corporate Governance 3.0 -Sustainable Development Roadmap." In order to encourage enterprises to pay attention to environment, society and governance “ESG” related issues, the name of the "Putting Corporate Social Responsibility into Practice" aspect was revised to "Promoting Sustainable Development." The board of directors of enterprises are encouraged to set up functional committees such as the nomination committee, risk management committee or sustainable development committee. New indicators related to SASB standards and climate related financial disclosure recommendations “TCFD” also encourage companies to strengthen ESG information disclosure with reference to international standards and norms.

 

The TWSE expects that the Corporate Governance Evaluation may guide companies to voluntarily follow international trends and best practices, establish a strong corporate governance system, and further deepen corporate governance in their DNAs. The TWSE also expects to guide them by praising the benchmark companies, and lead a healthy competition and mutual learning among them, in order to jointly better the corporate governance level of Taiwan's capital market.

 

For further information, please contact Ms. Lee at 1008@twse.com.tw.