TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- The board of Chunghwa Telecom Co. (NYSE:CHT) (CHT) approved on Friday a plan to return NT$19.11 billion of capital to shareholders by the first quarter of 2009.

It was the second capital reduction by the company, which returned NT$9.67 billion to shareholders earlier this year.

Board members of Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT) , Taiwan's largest phone company by revenue, approved the issuance of 1.91 billion new common shares from the company's capital surplus, which will be distributed to shareholders as dividends.

The same amount of shares will then be canceled from the firm's paid-in capital, allowing Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE:CHT) to return a total of NT$19.11 billion, or NT$ 1.6 a share, to shareholders.

After the capital increase and subsequent reduction, Chunghwa Telecom's (NYSE:CHT) outstanding shares will be at 9.70 billion, the company said in a statement.

-By Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; alex.pevzner@ dowjones.com

    (END) Dow Jones Newswires   06-27-08 0639   Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.