On 15 December 2017, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "SEHK") published its consultation conclusions on two consultations regarding the New Board and the Amendments to the Hong Kong Listing Rules (the "GEM") (collectively, the "Consultation Conclusions"). In brief, rather than establish a New Board, the SEHK proposes to expand Hong Kong's listing regime to allow "new economy" issuers with weighted voting right ("WVR") structures and pre-profit or pre-revenue biotech issuers, as well as create a new secondary listing route for overseas issuers. The SEHK further proposes to raise the minimum market capitalisation requirements for Main Board and GEM applicants, and cancel the GEM streamlined process. In avoidance of doubt, terms defined in the Consultation Conclusions shall have the same meaning when used in this newsletter unless otherwise defined.
