Mandatory e-filing of disclosure of interests will come into effect in July 2017

On 24 March 2017, the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance 2014 (the “Amendment Ordinance”) (Commencement) Notice 2017 was gazetted to bring into effect on 3 July 2017, Part 4 of the Amendment Ordinance, which makes it mandatory for corporate insiders (i.e. directors and chief executives) and substantial shareholders (“DI filers”) of listed corporations to file disclosure of interests notifications and reports (“DI notices”) electronically.

Currently, DI filers have the option to submit DI notices to The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “SEHK”) and the relevant listed corporations either by electronic means or in hard copy form by fax, by post, by hand-delivery.

In November 2007, the Securities and Futures Commission (the “SFC”) issued a consultation paper on the proposal to make it mandatory for DI filers to submit DI Notices electronically. In April 2008, the SFC published consultation conclusions on the proposal. The Amendment Ordinance was gazetted in April 2014 to incorporate amendments for the implementation of the mandatory e-filing regime.

Under the mandatory e-filing regime which is expected to come into effect on 3 July 2017,

• DI filers must submit DI notices to the SEHK by means of an electronic transmission system approved by the SFC; and
• DI filers will no longer be required to submit DI notices to the relevant listed corporations. Instead, the SEHK will provide DI notices it receives to the relevant listed corporations.

The SFC is currently working on the refining of the electronic transmission system and filing forms to facilitate the roll-out of the mandatory e-filing regime.

We will provide further updates when more details are expected to be unveiled by the SFC in April 2017.