8
Wednesday, August 1, 1973
The majority of the nine-man Committee are not convinced that
the advantages of compulsory disclosure are sufficiently great to justify
elaborate legislation imposing obligations which would be profoundly
distasteful to most law-abiding people and could easily be evaded.
They were influenced in their conclusion by the deep-seated aversion
of Chinese people to letting others know what property they own and by the
ease of evasion through nominee companies and the use of aliases.
As for disclosure of dealings, the majority view is that routine
general disclosure is not required in addition to the strong action
recommended against "insider dealings" coupled with the proposed special
power of the courts to order disclosure, where needed.
On the other hand, the minority are of the opinion that if Hong
Kong is to take its place with other major cities as a financial centre,
rules must be instituted along British lines in respect to the disclosure of
holdings of directors and major shareholders.
The minority believe that disclosure of relevant shareholdings
and share dealings would be one way of giving small investors the greater
protection they need.
!
They contend that in take-over situations, the law of the jungle"
should not prevail, and that disclosure is a necessity so that company
directors, shareholders and employees could be made aware of a situation
where it was reasonable to suppose that a person or company might be in
the process of buying control.
In addition,
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