transitional provisions in respect of persons whose names appeared in the authorized list of auditors previously kept under section 131(3) of the Companies Ordinance.
201. The Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 1972 was enacted to implement some of the recommendations contained in the First Report of the Companies Law Revision Committee on the subject of the Protection of Investors. The Ordinance, which came into operation on 1st March 1973, deals principally with prospectus requirements both for Hong Kong companies and for companies incorporated overseas. The Ordinance generally follows the comparable provisions of the Companies Act 1948 whilst adding some additional provisions recom- mended by the Committee. There is a new requirement that every prospectus must be in the English language and contain a Chinese translation. A new section 38A to the principal Ordinance empowers the Registrar of Companies to relax the provisions of the Third Schedule, which sets out the matters to be specified in a prospectus, should strict compliance be irrelevant or unduly burdensome in the circumstances mentioned in the section. The Registrar may now refuse to register a prospectus if it does not comply with the Ordinance or contains any information likely to mislead or misleading in the form and context in which it is included.
202. The Stock Exchanges Control Ordinance 1973 was enacted as an interim measure intended to curb the proliferation of stock exchanges in Hong Kong. Only those stock exchanges that are declared to be rec- ognized stock exchanges under section 3 of the Ordinance are allowed to operate a stock market, and contravention of this provision is made an offence. Section 3 of the Ordinance consolidates section 2A of the Companies Ordinance, which provided for the recognition of stock exchanges by order of the Governor in Council. Orders made under that section, now repealed, in relation to those stock exchanges that had already been recognized continue in force under the Ordinance.
203. The Money-lenders (Registration) (Amendment) Regulations 1972 revoked regulation 9 of the principal regulations substituting a new regulation, which is intended to ensure that the effective date of a new order of exemption shall follow immediately upon the expiry of an existing order. Under the revoked regulation difficulties had been encountered.
204. On 28th November 1972 the Governor in Council, under powers conferred by section 2A of the Companies Ordinance, made
62
Page 70Page 71
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.