AMTD International, a subsidiary of AMTD Group, and a dual-listed company on the NYSE and SGX-ST, has adopted a majority independent board structure.
In a statement released via SGX on Dec 24, the company also announced that it has promoted William Fung to CEO of the company with immediate effect.
The role comes in addition to Fung’s current position of group vice president of AMTD Group.
Fung is currently the company’s chief investment officer (CIO) and head of asset management f the company.
“Fung is a rising next-generation leader amongst the founding management team of AMTD Group. These new initiatives of the company will allow Calvin Choi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AMTD Group, to focus on the strategic developments and visions to continue building the ‘IDEAS’ concepts of AMTD Group and lead the group to greater heights,” says the company.
Following the appointment, Choi will relinquish his position as CEO, as well as its responsibilities to Fung.
This is done in a bid to focus his time and efforts on the strategies and future development plans of the overall AMTD Group.
Choi will focus on developing multi-disciplinary businesses in Asia spanning across digital services and solutions, K-12 education, premier properties and hotel investments, and professional services, added the statement.
In addition, the company board has elected independent director Feridun Hamdullahpur, as the new chairman; and Gao Yu, also an independent director, as the new vice chairman.
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Choi and director and vice-chairman Andrew Chiu will leave the board. The pair successfully led the listing of the company on the NYSE in August 2019 and on the SGX-ST in April 2020.
“We uphold the highest standards on corporate governance and continuously align to international best practices and global market standards. We are pleased to announce this new board structure comprising largely of independent directors with both new chairman and new vice chairman positions served by independent directors,” says Choi.
“Moreover, the company commits to cultivating and grooming promising new talents and the board’s promotion of William to Chief Executive Officer represents such a commitment. William as a second generation leader will lead the company on version 2.0 of AMTD International to further the company’s phenomenal growth and capture future growth opportunities,” he adds.
Hamdullahpur commented that “the new board is a clear demonstration of the company’s mission to embrace the highest corporate governance standards and to differentiate its franchise as a ‘glocal’ brand to continuously build and shine in the Asia region and beyond.”
“It is my great honour to be appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer and I am grateful for the trust and support that Calvin and the Board have in me. Under the leadership of Calvin and guidance from the Board, the Company have achieved numerous corporate milestones in the past few years, including the successful listing on NYSE in August 2019 and SGX in April 2020,” says Fung.
“Despite the global pandemic, AMTD International has achieved another strong year both financially and in terms of continuous business development and expansion. I am honoured to be entrusted with such important responsibility to lead the company in the post-pandemic era,” he adds. “I am pleased to witness our AUM growing at a phenomenal pace of over 185% since 2017 to reach over US$3.5 billion as of June 30, 2020. For investment banking, within the past 2 years we executed over 100 international capital markets transactions, raising over US$22 billion of proceeds for our Asian clients including a number of landmark transactions.”
As at 9.27am, shares in AMTD are trading flat at $17 on the SGX-ST.
