Exchange Publishes Conclusions on Paperless Listing & Subscription Regime, Online Display of Documents and Reduction of the Types of Documents on Display

• The Exchange will implement all its proposals with minor modifications
• All IPOs must be paperless from 5 July 2021
• Documents put on display to support listings and transactions, must be made available online from 4 October 2021

 

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Exchange), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), today (Friday) published conclusions to its consultation on Paperless Listing & Subscription Regime, Online Display of Documents and Reduction of the Types of Documents on Display (Consultation Conclusions)¹.

The Exchange received 146 non-duplicate responses² from a broad range of respondents that were representative of all stakeholders in the Hong Kong market. Having carefully considered each respondent’s views and based on the reasons set out in the consultation paper and provided by respondents, the Exchange will adopt all the proposals outlined in the consultation paper with a number of minor modifications as set out in the Consultation Conclusions.

“We believe these Listing Rule amendments will enhance the efficiency of the listing process, save issuers’ time and cost and minimise paper consumption. The amendments will also improve the accessibility of documents to investors, particularly those located on the Mainland or internationally,” said Bonnie Y Chan, HKEX’s Head of Listing.

“We recognise that there are some investors who prefer printed form documents and application forms. These investors can print documents from our e-Publication System and, additionally, investors can instruct their brokers or custodians to make electronic applications on their behalf,” added Ms Chan.

Under the amended Listing Rules:

1. All listing documents in a New Listing³ must be published solely in an electronic format and New Listing subscriptions, where applicable, must be made through online electronic channels only⁴ (Paperless Listing and Subscription Regime);
2. The current requirement for certain documents to be put on physical display will be replaced with a requirement for those documents to be published online (Online Display of Documents); and
3. The types of documents that it is mandatory for an issuer to put on display for notifiable transactions and connected transactions will be reduced (Reduction of Documents on Display).

The amended Listing Rules will take effect on the following dates:

1. Monday, 5 July 2021 - for the Listing Rule amendments relating to the Paperless Listing and Subscription Regime; and
2. Monday, 4 October 2021 - for the Listing Rule amendments relating to the Online Display of Documents and the Reduction of Documents on Display.

The Consultation Conclusions and copies of the respondents’ submissions can be downloaded from the “News – Market Consultation” section of the HKEX website.

 

Notes:

1. The Consultation Paper was published on 24 July 2020. The consultation period ended on 24 September 2020.
2. We received a total of 149 submissions from respondents. Three respondents submitted the same response as each other, and two respondents submitted the same response as each other. We have counted these as two responses in total.
3. “New Listing” refers to an application for listing of equities (including stapled securities and depositary receipts), debt securities and collective investment schemes (“CIS”) on the Exchange by a new applicant where a listing document is required under the Listing Rules but excludes a “Mixed Media Offer” (“MMO”) (i.e. an offer process whereby an issuer or CIS offeror can distribute paper application forms for public offers of certain securities without a printed prospectus, so long as the prospectus is available on the HKEX website and the website of the issuer/ CIS offeror and it makes printed prospectuses publicly available free of charge upon request at specified locations (which do not have to be the same locations as where the printed application forms are distributed)).
4. This is except for those issuers adopting an MMO.

  

 

About HKEX

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is one of the world’s major exchange groups, and operates a range of equity, commodity, fixed income and currency markets.  HKEX is the world’s leading IPO market and as Hong Kong’s only securities and derivatives exchange and sole operator of its clearing houses, it is uniquely placed to offer regional and international investors access to Asia’s most vibrant markets.

HKEX is also the global leader in metals trading, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, The London Metal Exchange (LME) and LME Clear Limited.  This commodity franchise was further enhanced with the launch of Qianhai Mercantile Exchange (QME), in China, in 2018.

HKEX launched the pioneering Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme in 2014, further expanded with the launch of Shenzhen Connect in 2016, and the launch of Bond Connect in 2017.

www.hkexgroup.com

 

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