On November 12, in the first-instance judgment in the “Kangmei Pharmaceutical Case”, five independent directors at the time were fined more than 100 million yuan and jointly and severally liable for compensation. Since then, the announcement of the resignation of independent directors in the A-share market has increased significantly.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter combed the data and found that since November, 46 independent directors of 41 companies have resigned due to personal or physical reasons. According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 independent directors have resigned in 2021.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter used data to see through the “independent director” resignation group portrait: more than 14,000 A-share independent directors, with an average annual salary of about 85,000 yuan. Which professional fields do the independent directors of “less money and greater responsibility” come from?
According to incomplete statistics from the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter, a total of 102 independent directors of 84 listed companies have resigned since 2021. It is worth noting that the number of independent directors who resigned after October accounted for half of the number of independent directors who resigned throughout the year. Especially in November, 46 independent directors of 41 companies resigned.
From the point of view of the time point, with the “Kangmei case” first-instance judgment on November 12 as the demarcation point, from the 12th to the 23rd, 31 independent directors from 29 listed companies resigned, a sharp increase from the previous number.
In 2021, 14 listed companies will announce the resignation of multiple independent directors on the same day. Among them, Helenzhe and Now Shares have at most 3 independent directors who resigned on the same day, and the reasons for resignation are “personal reasons.”
The most independent directors who resigned in 2021 came from the computer application industry, accounting for 15.85% of the annual resignation of independent directors, followed by power equipment and media industries.
2.Where do the independent directors who resigned in November come from?
40% of independent directors are university professorsThe youngest is only 34 years old
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter combed through the resume data of independent directors who resigned in November and found that there were 14 professors and 5 associate professors from the Department of Capital Finance, Accounting, Business Management, Law, Auditing and other majors.
Take Zhangzhou Development, which announced the resignation of independent directors in November as an example. The two independent directors who resigned on the same day were both professors of Xiamen University: Independent director Lin Zhiyang is a professor of the Department of Business Administration of Xiamen University School of Management; independent director Huang Jianxiong is a professor of Xiamen University Law School , The 2020 Zhangzhou Development Annual Report disclosed that the two independent directors were paid 60,000 yuan.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter found that most of the independent directors who resigned in November have professional backgrounds, most of whom are professors or partners, and have rich professional qualifications. The average age is 52, and the 50-year-old age group accounts for 45.7%. They are in the 40-year-old age group, accounting for 26.1%. Among them, the oldest is Feng Jing, an independent director of Yuxin Technology, and a senior economist. From December 2004 to September 2012, he served as the vice president and party committee member of China Construction Bank Investment Co., Ltd.; the youngest is the accountant of the Central University of Finance and Economics. Li Xinzi, associate professor of the college, is only 34 years old this year.
The longest term of an independent director is six consecutive years. The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter combed the data and found that nearly 80% of independent directors resigned due to “personal reasons” and “personal development planning”, and a small part was due to company strategic adjustments. The abolition of the independent director system abolished posts and was “unemployed.”
In addition, some independent directors have resigned due to changes in their positions, such as Qiu Lequn of Guanghong Technology, who will serve as the company’s chief financial officer after resigning as an independent director.
It is worth noting that although independent directors are “standard positions” in listed companies, some companies will cancel independent director seats according to the adjustment of the company’s development strategy. This year, 6 independent directors are “unemployed.”
In March of this year, Jin Runhe issued an announcement stating that it intends to abolish the related system of independent directors, and two independent directors resigned. Subsequently, Chengxing shares, which issued an announcement of the resignation of independent directors at the end of April, also stated that “because of the company’s strategic development plan, independent directors will not be set up for the time being. After friendly communication with the two independent directors, they resigned from the position of independent director of the company.”
3.The annual salary of independent directors of Junshi exceeds 5 million, which is the best A share
The average annual salary of 14,000 independent directors is 85,000
The main characteristics of independent directors are professionalism and independence. “Professionalism” means that independent directors must have certain professional qualities and abilities, and be able to independently make judgments and express valuable opinions on the company’s directors and managers and related issues based on their professional knowledge and experience. “Independence” means that independent directors must be independent in terms of personality, economic interests, generation procedures, exercise of rights, etc., without being restricted by controlling shareholders and company management. Therefore, most of the remuneration received by independent directors in listed companies is less than 100,000 yuan per year.
As of November 22, there were 14,387 independent directors in 4,634 A-share companies. On average, each listed company has about 3 independent directors. The majority are men, accounting for nearly 80%.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter combed the data and found that among the independent directors of A-share listed companies, the annual salary is generally not high, and the gap is large. Among the 14,387 A-share independent directors, 2683 independent directors have undisclosed remuneration, and 534 independent directors have “zero salary”. Among the remaining 11,170 independent directors, the average annual salary in 2020 is 85,023 yuan, and the median annual salary is 7. Ten thousand yuan.
Statistics show that among A-share independent directors, more than 70% have an annual salary of less than 100,000 yuan, and only more than 4,000 have an annual salary of more than 100,000, accounting for less than 30%. Among them, the annual salary between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan accounted for the most, 41.77%; followed by 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, accounting for 10.29%.
Among the 14,000 independent directors, only 2 are independent directors with an annual salary of one million. The highest annual salary is the independent director of Junshi Biology. The salary in 2020 is as high as 5.4308 million yuan, ranking first in A shares. According to the data, Xie Li Ping was born in April 1957 and served as an independent non-executive director of Junshi Biotechnology on June 24, 2018. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in medicine from Fujian Medical University in 1982, and a master’s degree in science from Peking Union Medical College in 1986, 1989 Received a Ph.D. from Drexel University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 2005.
Roy Steven Herbst, the independent director of Junshi Biology, has an annual salary of over one million. In 2020, he will receive a salary of 2.0255 million yuan.
In addition to the annual salary of one million, there are 194 independent directors of A shares whose annual salary is less than 10,000 yuan, and some are less than 1,000 yuan. For example, Wang Shangli, independent director of ST Noble, will have a salary of 500 yuan in 2020; Li Shufeng and Zhai Yehu, independent directors of Guangyu Development, will have a salary of 300 yuan in 2020.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter noted that among independent directors, the annual salary of 60,000, 80,000, and 100,000 is the most common, and the income of independent directors is no different from the ordinary working class.
What can be gained by being an independent director? The annual salary is not necessarily high, but the fines may be huge. Among the five independent directors involved in the “Kangmei case,” Du Dong Jiang Zhenping has an annual salary of about 71,000 yuan, and the remaining four have an annual salary of only about 100,000 yuan, but they have to bear more than 100 million yuan of joint and several liability for compensation.
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