Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) Members of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) board of directors received an annual pay of almost NT$52 million (US$1.78 million) each in 2016, the highest among all the listed companies on the main board, according to statistics from the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).
The data showed that TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, paid its board members a total NT$416 million in 2016, with each one receiving NT$51.997 million on average.
Their total pay amounted to only 0.12 percent of the company's net profit for the year, which was reported at NT$334.25 billion, the data showed. TSMC board members earned more than those of any other company listed on Taiwan's main board, according to the TWSE.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), the world's largest semiconductor testing and packaging service provider, was the second highest paying listed company, offering an annual amount of NT$44.48 million to each of its directors in 2016, the data showed.
The board members of Largan Precision Co., a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc., received an annual pay of NT$41.28 million, which was the third highest amount, according to the TWSE data.
Among the top-10 listed companies in terms of pay to their board of directors were tire maker Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. (正新輪胎) and food brand Uni-President Corp. (統一), both in the old economy sector, which paid NT$20 million on average to each of their board members in 2016, the TWSE said.
Financial firms in the top 10 -- CTBC Financial Holding Co., Fubon Financial Holding and Taishin Financial Holding Co. -- also paid their board members NT$20 million on average, TWSE said.
Meanwhile, property developer Tidehold Development Co. paid almost all of its NT$4.097 million in net profit to its board of directors in 2016, with the total hitting NT$3.768 million, the data showed.
Board members of information service provider Digital China Holdings Ltd. each received NT$26.07 million on average in 2016, which totaled NT$200 million and accounted for almost a quarter of the company's earnings for the year, according to the TWSE.
(By Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang)
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