SAIC announces change in board of directors

Shanghai, May 28 (Gasgoo.com) Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation (SAIC) announced today the change in its board members. The new list shows the board members total up to 11 persons from original 7. Besides the original four members, other candidates are either new or have their positions changed. Particularly, Ji Xiaohui, director of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank was nominated the outside board member candidate.

According to the announcement, as the former board meeting approved, the tenure of the third session of the board was delayed till June 30, 2008 from the original April 18, 2007. The upcoming fourth session of the board is comprised of 11 members, including 7 non-executive directors (two outside directors and one worker-director besides stockholders) and four independent directors.

The nomination reflects a big change from the original board layout. Of the six non-executive directors, two candidates for outside directors are Ji Xiaohui and Xie Rong. Ji Xiaohui now is the director of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. Xie Rong, current vice president of Shanghai National Accounting Institute, was an independent director of the third session but was nominated as an outside director this time.

Hu Maoyuan, Cheng Hong, Shen Jianhua and Chen Zhixin were nominated as the new non-executive directors, and the first three are the only ones whose positions haven’t been changed. Chen Zhixin, vice president of SAIC and general manager of Nanjing Automobile Corporation, didn’t appear in the third session.

Of the four candidates for independent directors, Duan Qihua is the only one who remains as a candidate of independent directors. Other three candidates, You Jianxin, Shao Ruiqing, and Lin Zhongqin, are not members of the third session.

SAIC insiders said the big change was normal because many directors of the third-session board were senior officials from the period of Shanghai Automotive Co, Ltd, but after the company was listed and renamed as Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation, it is reasonable for a great adjustment in the corporate board.