Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. says Susan Wang, Julian Worley and Zhizhong Qiu have resigned from the company's board of directors, effective immediately. According to the company, the independent board members say they could no longer fulfill their responsibilities due to a lack of necessary information and the company's failure to implement some of their proposed actions.
Suntech filed for insolvency in June after defaulting on its bonds. The company regained its New York Stock Exchange compliance in early August after it received a delisting warning.
The issues of concern cited by the departing directors include the following:
- Severe cash flow drain with unclear prospect of securing new capital;
- Difficult prospects on completing consensual restructuring with convertible bondholders;
- Lack of clear business plan;
- Loss of critical talent and potential severe personnel retention issues;
- Failure to pay outside legal counsel;
- Potential erosion of internal controls; and
- Impairment of employees' ability to function effectively.
Philip Fan, Michael Nacson, Kurt Metzger, Weiping Zhou, Zhengrong Shi and Mr. David King continue to serve as directors of the company. According to Suntech, the remaining three independent directors, Fan, Nacson and Metzger, say that despite significant problems, they see progress being made and that the board of directors is now configured to function more effectively to deal with the company's complex restructuring issues.
The remaining directors have elected Nacson as chairman of the board.
