Hong Kong Stock Exchange seeks to attract advanced technology enterprises to list on the Main Board

On the same day when Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive delivered his first Policy Address last week, laying out the vision to enhance Hong Kong’s position as a global fundraising platform, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange released the consultation paper on a Listing Regime for Specialist Technology Companies, proposing for public comments a new chapter to the Main Board Listing Rules to allow enterprises operating in five identified specialist technology industries which do not otherwise meet the Main Board eligibility tests on profit, revenue or cash flow to list in Hong Kong. These enterprises may be pre-revenue companies or post-revenue companies. 

Using the listing eligibility requirements for Biotech companies contained in Chapter 18A of the Listing Rules as a blueprint, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange proposes to adopt many requirements which the market is already familiar with in the new Chapter 18C for specialist technology companies, and adding new requirements to deal with the unique features of specialist technology industries. 

The consultation is open for responses until 18 December 2022.

In this bulletin, we consider the key features of the IPO and post-IPO requirements proposed in Chapter 18C.