The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange (TPEx) are jointly holding a grand award ceremony at the Taipei International Convention Center on June 10 (Wednesday) to honor the companies ranked in the top 5% of the first corporate governance evaluation, which will be 40 TWSE-listed and 30 TPEX-listed companies.  Furthermore, awards will also be handed out to the companies that ranked in the top 5% on the announced list for the growth in average employee compensation in 2014 which will be 10 TWSE-listed and 5 TPEX-listed companies. 

The TWSE states that results of the first corporate governance evaluation were officially released on April 30, 2015.  In accordance with the “Corporate Governance Roadmap”, companies that ranked in the top 20% were announced for the first year to achieve the goal of rewarding outstanding companies and making such companies serve as the benchmark.  2014 corporate governance evaluation covers five important categories and 92 indicators.  Most of the indicators exceed the requirements of the law so as to guide the enterprises to adopt better corporate governance mechanisms.  The average evaluation scores of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies are 74.23 points and 72.41 points, respectively, demonstrating good corporate governance level of listed companies. The average scores of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies ranked in the top 20% are 87.4 points and 81.85 points, respectively.  The average scores of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies ranked in the top 5% are 93.84 points and 88.46 points, respectively.  This analysis shows that such companies not only comply with laws and self-discipline rules, but also proactively take the initiatives to improve their own corporate governance practices. 

According to the TWSE, the 2014 average earnings per share (EPS) of TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies ranked in the top 5% were 2.73 NT dollars and 4.58 NT dollars, respectively. This is higher than the average EPS of rest of the TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies, which were 2.37 NT dollars and 1.69 NT dollars, respectively.  Moreover, looking from the 2014 average return on equity (ROE), TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies ranked in the top 5% are 10.82% and 13.19%, respectively. These figures were also better than the rest of the TWSE-listed and TPEx-listed companies, which were 6.57% and 4.14%, respectively. This suggests that companies that had good performance in this evaluation also have outstanding operating performance. 

The TWSE has invited Tseng Ming-Chung, Chairperson of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to give a speech and present the awards at this ceremony. Additionally, representatives from major funds, the Securities Investment Trust & Consulting Association (SITCA), Taiwan Securities Association (TSA), and corporate governance related organizations are also invited to join the event. Through this corporate governance evaluation, the TWSE Corporate Governance Center hopes to identify role models and incorporate benchmark functions so as to encourage companies to pay more attention to corporate governance, thereby shaping the culture of corporate governance.