Combating Market Misconduct - Section 213 strikes again...and where or what else will it strike?

The Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") has been steadily getting more creative in the use of its powers and we can expect them to continue to do so, given their recent success in obtaining compensation for investors for financial misstatements in a company's prospectus. The SFC successfully obtained a court order under section 213 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance ("SFO"), that Hontex International Holdings Co. Ltd. ("Hontex") pay back more than HK$1 billion raised in its 2009 initial public offering. This will give further impetus to the SFC's push to improve the quality of disclosure in prospectuses and their controversial proposal – the consultation period for which has been extended to end of July - to make sponsors (who advise companies to a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange) criminally liable for faulty prospectuses. And finally, a sting in the tail – what will this mean for financial institutions with self-reporting obligations and their new