Language Issues

All fields in ESS should be completed in English except for the “Chinese Title” and the “Chinese Company Name”. The Chinese Title (including the Chapter Titles of document in multiple-files format) field accepts traditional Chinese characters only.

The English Title field accepts English keyboard characters only. Certain currency symbols (for example £, ¥, €), fractions and other special non-keyboard characters are not accepted. You can consider an alternative wording of these characters such as Pounds, Yen and Euro.

Use of English and Traditional Chinese characters (as opposed to simplified Chinese characters) is consistent with HKEX current practice with regard to the publication of issuers’ announcements and other documents. For this reason, only traditional Chinese characters are used in ESS (i.e. display and input).

Document can be submitted in a single language where permitted by the Listing Rules. The types of document where single language publication is usually permitted include overseas regulatory announcements, the trading reports and pre-listing reports of structured product issuers.

The Listing Rules usually require that, for documents where both English and Chinese versions must be published, both language versions be submitted for publication simultaneously. However, Annual Reports or Listing Documents can be published in two separate language submissions, one after the other.

You can submit a bilingual document for publication and you do not need to separate a bilingual document into a purely English and a purely Chinese language version.

However, you should submit a copy of a bilingual document under an English title on one submission and the same copy of the bilingual document under a Chinese title on a separate submission. This is to ensure the document can be published on both language versions of the HKEXnews website.