HONG KONG: HKEX Publishes Listing Document Simplification Guide

Tuesday February 2 2016

On 2nd February 2016, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Exchange), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), published a new Guidance Letter – “Guide on Producing Simplified Listing Documents Relating to Equity Securities for New Applications”.

The objectives of the Listing Document Simplification Guide include:-

• assisting applicants and their advisers to produce listing documents which fulfil the general principle that potential investors are given sufficient information to enable them to make a properly informed assessment of an applicant and that information contained in a listing document must be clearly presented and in plain language format.
• improving investors` ability to find and understand information in a listing document necessary to make a properly informed assessment of an applicant; and
• consolidating and updating guidance on listing document simplification.

The Listing Document Simplification Guide is divided into three parts:

• General guidance on producing clear and concise listing documents;
• Consolidated and updated version of a number of the Exchange`s guidance letters on disclosures in listing documents, mostly included under the title “Simplification Series”; and
• Online hyperlinks to: sample “Summary of the Constitution of the Company and the Companies Law” sections of listing documents of applicants incorporated in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Mainland China; and the corresponding sample constitutional documents for the applicants.

The Exchange will not return a listing application merely because it does not follow the General Guidance, the Specimen Sections or the Sample Constitutional Documents, but will remind applicants to do so. However, for applicants which intend to submit their listing applications after 30 April 2016, they should comply with the Consolidated Guidance in place of the Exchange’s guidance letters on disclosures in listing documents, mostly included under the title “Simplification Series”.

Click on the link above for further details.