The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announces that amendments to the Securities and Futures (Professional Investor) Rules (PI Rules) have come into operation today (Note 1).
The categories of professional investors have been expanded to include holding companies which wholly own another corporation which is itself a qualified professional investor. Directors of holding companies should ensure that shareholders are properly informed when the company becomes a professional investor under the amended PI Rules.
Also today, the SFC issued a circular requiring intermediaries to obtain confirmations to ensure that shareholders are properly informed of a holding company’s status before providing services to that holding company as a professional investor.
For other amendments, please refer to the press release (Note 2) issued on 18 May 2018 for details.
Notes:
- The Securities and Futures (Professional Investor) (Amendment) Rules 2018, effective today, aim to incorporate modifications previously granted by the SFC under section 134 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance.
- The SFC’s public consultation on the rule amendments ended on 3 April 2017 and the consultation conclusions were published on 18 May 2018.
