Following the official announcement of a 57 billion yuan investment project at noon, on the evening of September 3,SMICRelease againannouncementSaid that Zhou Zixue resigned as chairman and CFO Gao Yonggang acted as chairman.
A reporter from China Securities News contacted relevant personnel of the company on the specific reasons for the change of the chairman. The other party said that the announcement shall prevail.
Change of coach: Chairman resigns early
On the evening of September 3,SMICAnnouncement, Zhou Zixue resigned as chairman and chairman of the nomination committee of the board of directors. Gao Yonggang, executive director, chief financial officer and company secretary, was appointed as the acting chairman of the board to perform the duties of the chairman and serve as the chairman of the nomination committee of the board of directors, effective immediately.
Zhou Zixue was appointed as the chairman and executive director of the company in March 2015. Prior to this, Zhou Zixue served as Director of the Finance Department and Chief Economist of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology from 2009 to 2015.According to the original plan, its term ends in 2023shareholderAnnual General Meeting Day. According to the announcement, Zhou Zixue will continue to serve as the company’s executive director after resigning from the above-mentioned position.
A reporter from China Securities News noticed thatSMICIn the management team list displayed on the official website on September 3, the above position change information has been updated, and Gao Yonggang has become the acting chairman and chief financial officer.
source:SMICOfficial website
Reporter reviewCompany AnnouncementIt was found that as of September 3,SMICThere are currently 5 executive directors (Gao Yonggang, Zhou Zixue, Jiang Shangyi, Zhao Haijun, Liang Mengsong), among which Gao Yonggang is the youngest (55 years old) and has been in the company the longest (12 years).
According to the announcement, Gao Yonggang became a non-executive director of the company in 2009. He was appointed as executive vice president of the company’s strategic planning on June 17, 2013, and was transferred to executive director. He was appointed as the company’s chief financial officer on February 17, 2014. He was appointed as the company’s joint company secretary on July 3, 2017, and was appointed as the company secretary on November 11, 2020.Gao Yonggang stillSMICDirectors, executive directors or chairman of the board of certain subsidiaries and affiliated companies.
According to the company, Gao Yonggang holds a PhD in management from Nankai University and has served as chief accountant of the Institute of Telecommunications Science and Technology (Datang Telecom Technology Industry Group) and chairman of Datang Telecom Group Finance Co., Ltd. Gao Yonggang has more than 30 years of experience in corporate management and has served as the financial or corporate head of many companies or organizations.Gao Yonggang is an executive director of the Chinese Accounting Association, a member of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board Listing Committee, and a founding director of the Hong Kong Independent Non-executive Directors Association, Chinadigital informationVice President of Industry Federation etc. He has rich experience and in-depth research in the fields of financial management, investment and financing, and corporate management.
Opportunity: 57 billion yuan investment project
At noon on the day of the announcement of the change of coaching, SMIC announced another major issue: the company’s cooperation with the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area Management Committee on September 2, 2021 (“Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area Management Committee”) signed a cooperation framework agreement.
According to the cooperation framework agreement, the company and the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area Management Committee intend toShanghai LingangThe pilot free trade zone jointly established a joint venture company. The joint venture company will plan to build a 12-inch wafer foundry production line project with a capacity of 100,000 wafers/month, focusing on providing integrated circuit wafer foundry and technology at 28nm and above technology nodes service.
According to SMIC’s announcement, the project plans to invest approximately US$8.87 billion (approximately RMB 57.2 billion). The registered capital of the joint venture company is planned to be US$5.5 billion, of which the company intends to contribute no less than 51%. The investment main body designated by the people’s government intends to contribute no more than 25% of the capital.
A reporter from China Securities News noted that the “14th Five-Year” development plan for the Lingang New Area of Shanghai Free Trade Zone announced on July 26 mentioned that the Lingang New Area will focus on advanced technology integrated circuit materials and promote the third generation of semiconductors. Breakthroughs in materials and other fields, and accelerate the development and industrialization of 12-inch equipment. By 2025, the integrated circuit industry scale of Lingang New Area will exceed 100 billion yuan.
Risk: technical talent or loss
SMIC’s 2020 annual report and 2021 semi-annual report frankly stated that in recent years, with the strong support of national policies, the number of integrated circuit companies has grown rapidly, the supply of outstanding technical talents in the industry has seen a large gap, and the competition for talent is becoming increasingly fierce. If the company’s outstanding technical R&D personnel leave and the company cannot recruit experienced technical personnel in a short period of time, it may affect the company’s process R&D and technological breakthroughs, and adversely affect the company’s continued competitiveness.
According to the 2021 semi-annual report, as of the end of June 2021, SMIC has a total of 1,785 R&D personnel, a decrease of 634 compared to the same period last year. Technical R&D personnel account for 11.2% of the company’s total employees.
The company said that the number of R&D personnel in this period decreased compared with the previous period, mainly due to the transfer of some research-related personnel to production and operation positions and the impact of the sale of the subsidiary SJ Semiconductor Corporation. However, the number of company’s R&D personnel has indeed shown a downward trend in recent years. At the end of 2019, the company still had 2,530 technical R&D personnel, accounting for 16.0% of the company’s total employees.
In addition to the reduction in the scale of R&D personnel, the whereabouts of SMIC’s core technical personnel have also attracted attention recently.
In December 2020, SMIC announced that there are media reports that the company’s executive director and co-CEO Liang Mengsong intends to resign from the company, and the company is aware of Liang Mengsong’s conditional resignation. Although it succeeded in retaining Liang Mengsong in the end, the company’s A-share share price fell by about 10% two days before and after the news was released.
In July 2021, SMIC announced that the company’s core technical staff Wu Jingang applied for resignation due to personal reasons and completed the resignation procedures. After resignation, Wu Jingang no longer holds any position in the company. According to the prospectus, Wu Jingang is one of the five core technical personnel of SMIC. During his tenure, he was responsible for participating in the research and development and management of the company’s FinFET advanced process technology. According to the company’s previously announced stock incentive plan, Wu Jingang would have received 160,000 restricted shares. According to the provisions of the equity incentive plan, this resignation, Wu Jingang will automatically give up this part of the restricted stock with a market value of nearly 10 million yuan.
(Source: China Securities Journal)
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