New Year's present (?) from the HK regulator

January 1 is the first day of the new HK disclosure of price sensitive information rules for public companies.  This week the HK SFC called on public companies to begin making disclosures.  The new rules may well end up posing considerable risks for firms interacting with HK public companies as the consultation papers would appear to be quite narrowly interpreting what is a public disclosure.  The SFC's notice this week is as follows:

SFC encourages listed companies to disclose inside information before 1 January 2013

14 Dec 2012

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) encourages listed companies to ensure their disclosures are up-to-date when the statutory disclosure regime comes into operation on 1 January 2013. Under the new regime, a listed company will have a statutory duty to disclose inside information that has not been disclosed (Note 1).

All listed companies should take steps to ensure that any inside information that has come to their knowledge is identified and disclosed before 1 January 2013 to avoid being in breach of the new statutory disclosure requirements.

To help listed companies understand the new disclosure obligation, the SFC has launched a consultation service on 1 December 2012 and the SFC’s Guidelines on Disclosure of Inside Information was issued and gazetted earlier this year (Note 2).

Contact details on the consultation service are available on the SFC’s website.

End

Notes:

1. Please see SFC’s press release on 3 May 2012 regarding the gazettal of the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance 2012. The gazette is available on the website of the Government Logistics Department.
2. Please see the SFC’s press release on 29 November 2012.