SMIC appoints chairman, CEO resigns

HONG KONG, CHINA:  China's largest chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, said it had named Zhang Wenyi as chairman and acting chief executive officer, following the death of its chairman and a shareholders' vote removing its CEO from the board.

David Wang resigned as chief executive officer with effect from on July 13 and trading in the company's shares was expected to resume on Monday, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on late Friday.    

Zhang, aged 64 and chairman of Shanghai Hua Hong Group Co, was appointed an independent non-executive director of SMIC last month. SMIC's shareholders voted against re-electing Wang to the board at a meeting and trading in its stock was suspended on June 30. This ignited speculation that there would be a senior management shakeup.   

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The company said apart from Wang no member of the senior management had left the firm recently, although it confirmed media reports that almost 100 middle-management employees left the company in the past nine months. It has 11,000 employees, of which 1,000 are middle management employees, SMIC said.   The stock has lost 6.6 percent so far this year, compared with a 5 percent fall in the Hang Seng Index.