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On 16 December 2022, our Partners and Heads of SW Private Client Department, Ms. Catherine Por and Ms. Wendy Lam, and Partner Mr. Calvin Lo, were invited by Temple Chambers to attend the Family Law Christmas Drinks.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Temple Chambers for the invitation and the enjoyable evening to catch up with our friends and peers.

Introduction

On 16 December 2022, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Exchange”) published a consultation paper seeking public feedback on proposals to expand the paperless listing regime and make other rule amendments (the “Consultation Paper”). The public comment period ends on 28 February 2023.

The Consultation Paper was published to further simplify the Exchange’s administrative procedures and reduce the use of paper after the success of the consultation paper on proposals to introduce a paperless listing and subscription regime, online display of documents and reduction of the types of documents on display published by the Exchange in July 2020 and its conclusions paper published in December 2020 (see our news update).

Sorry, this entry is only available in 中文.

On 9 December 2022, our firm successfully co-organised a “ESG Sharing: Taking ESG from Concept to Action” seminar with Roma Group (hkex: 8072), Workiva (NYSE: WK) and Formex Financial Press. Our Partner Mr. Gordon Tsang and Associate Mr. Ben Chan spoke on the topic “New Amendments to the Corporate Governance Code for Listed Companies”. They explained The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited’s (the Exchange) new amendments on the Corporate Governance Code and Related Listing Rules, such as the board’s independence and diversity, communications with shareholders, and ESG. Gordon and Ben also joined the other guest speakers, including the Director of Roma Risk Advisory Limited, Mr. Kingsley Cheng, Regional Sales Director of Workiva, Ms. Olivia Wong, and Company Secretary (hkex: 1709 & 756), Ms. Mina Chin, in the fireside chat to share their insights on the ESG trends in companies’ strategy and governance.

Introduction

On 31 October 2022, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (“SFC”) issued a circular regarding virtual assets (“VA”) ¹futures exchange traded funds (the “Circular”). The Circular sets out the requirements under which the SFC may consider authorising exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) that obtain exposure to VAs primarily through futures contracts (“VA Futures ETFs”) for public offering in Hong Kong under sections 104 and 105 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (“SFO”).
As noted in the Circular, the SFC is prepared to accept applications for authorisation of VA Futures ETFs. The SFC will keep in view and closely monitor the development of the VA market and its regulatory landscape regarding the appropriateness of authorisation of ETFs that invest directly in spot VAs.
The Circular was published soon after the Hong Kong government issued a policy statement on the development of VA (the “Policy Statement”) relating to, among others, non-fungible token issuance, green bond tokenisation, and e-HKD (see our news update on the Policy Statement here).