• Old Site
  • Members' Login
  • Contact Us
  • Who We Are
  • ACGA Research
  • Advocacy
  • Market
  • Events
  • News
  • Blog
  • Conference
  • Members
search
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • ACGA Research
  • Advocacy
  • Market
  • Events
  • News
  • Blog
  • Conference
  • Members
  • Old Site
  • Members' Login
  • Contact Us
1 April 2022
Singapore, Malaysia turn the heat up on entrenched INEDs as Hong Kong backpedals
Markets in the region are giving minority shareholders a bigger say over long-serving independent directors, but Hong Kong sticks with the status quo, writes Jane Moir, ACGA Research Director for Hong Kong & Singapore Regulators in Singapore and Malaysia are gently dusting off the cobwebs. From January 2022, both markets made it harder for ...
VIEW MORE
7 March 2022
South Korea’s fork in the road
As election day looms, ACGA Research Manager Stephanie Lin looks at the good, bad and ugly prospects for ESG in the polarised candidates’ pledges The South Korean presidential election takes place on 9 March 2022 and polls suggest a tight race between the two major candidates, Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-yeol ...
VIEW MORE
21 February 2022
China: predictions and predicaments in the year of the tiger
The year of the Ox saw myriad twists and turns for investors in PRC firms. ACGA’s China Research and Project Director Nana Li takes a look at ten major developments during 2021 and considers how they may play out in the year of the tiger. 1. Taming the tech giants It was a rollercoaster year for China tech stocks. Following the abrupt ...
VIEW MORE
25 January 2022
China: live and let VIE
A listing loophole used by tech firms such as Alibaba and Tencent to list overseas recently received a PRC regulatory stamp of approval. What is a VIE, why is it controversial and what does the future hold for these structures? ACGA’s China Research Director Nana Li has some answers. What is a VIE? A VIE (variable interest entity) is a ...
VIEW MORE
17 January 2022
Corruption just got easier in Indonesia
Recent political machinations have emasculated Indonesia’s once-feared anti-corruption commission and its future looks bleak, writes Chris Leahy. Formed amid much scepticism in 2003 under the administration of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Corruption Eradication Commission, known locally by its acronym, the KPK, surprised ...
VIEW MORE
13 January 2022
Taiwan: boardroom battle leaves shareholders bothered and bewildered
Lax disclosure regime keeps shareholders in the dark over power play at rare metals refiner. ACGA’s Taiwan & Malaysia Research Director Neesha Wolf unpicks the antics to find a familiar CG foe at play. When Solar Applied Materials Technology (“Solar Tech”) announced that its chairman had been replaced in November 2021 ...
VIEW MORE
4 January 2022
Kangmei Pharmaceutical: China court dispenses strong medicine
Jackpot payout for shareholders in China’s inaugural class action sets the bar high for investor damages but is a bitter pill for independent directors, says ACGA’s China Research Director Nana Li A group of 55,326 shareholders of a Shanghai-listed pharmaceutical firm entered the history books in late 2021 as victors in China’s ...
VIEW MORE
3 January 2022
Old school mentality in the new economy: Board diversity at the top 100 in Hong Kong
Big tech underperforms while other firms make headway in elevating women to the C-Suite and nomination committee with promising results Summary Hong Kong has one of the lowest rates of female directors in Asia, with around 13%1  sitting on boards of the 2,538 companies listed here. ACGA decided to dig a bit deeper into the situation at ...
VIEW MORE
24 November 2021
India nudges the elephant
Can independent directors nominated by controlling shareholders, and essentially elected by them, be truly independent? This is a question Asian markets have been grappling with for two decades. India has some tentative answers. Since the concept of the independent director was introduced into India in the late 1990s questions have been asked ...
VIEW MORE
30 September 2021
Hong Kong shareholders unite for lawsuit over misleading IPO prospectus
ACGA Research Director Jane Moir reports on a very rare event  The past two decades has seen a fair number of companies list in Hong Kong and quickly unravel as findings of fabricated invoices, bogus accounts and plundered assets come to light. The board vanishes, the firm de-lists, shareholders take a hit and the market moves on. It is ...
VIEW MORE
30 September 2021
India: Listen up
Two recent regulatory cases in India, one relating to tax and the other auditing, highlight the perils of not listening to market feedback before making policy.  Regulators worldwide consult stakeholders when they envisage new laws and market rules or seek to amend those already on the books. Public consultations enable policy makers to ...
VIEW MORE
28 September 2021
SPACs and sensibility
As Asian markets jump on the SPAC bandwagon, Hong Kong consultation reflects city’s chequered history with shell companies and stock manipulation, according to Jane Moir, ACGA Research Director. On Friday 17 September, Hong Kong’s stock exchange released a consultation on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). Just five of 101 ...
VIEW MORE
23 September 2021
Fixing the unfixable?
Corporate governance in Indonesia and the Philippines is once again at risk of going backwards. What can be done? Rating corporate governance standards in Indonesia and the Philippines can at times be a Sisyphean task. In the 20 years since ACGA started ranking the macro quality of Asian corporate governance, neither market has placed higher in ...
VIEW MORE
21 September 2021
Hong Kong’s cash for IPOs bribery trial enters the final stages
A former co-head of HKEX’s IPO vetting team is in the dock for bribery and misconduct in public office. ACGA’s Vivian Yau is following the case. As both sides prepare closing arguments in the trial of Eugene Yeoh Kim-loong, ACGA looks back at six weeks of evidence involving 30 witnesses—and one unexpected revelation. Yeoh is on ...
VIEW MORE
9 September 2021
Beijing’s ByteDance play: the Party is just getting started
China’s decision to take token stakes in key mainland entities of tech giants such as ByteDance and Weibo underscores a tactical shift toward more direct influence over private enterprises. We expect more to come—and it is unlikely to be limited to the tech sector. As reported last month in tech website The Information, the state ...
VIEW MORE
3 August 2021
Hong Kong: cash for IPO approvals case kicks off next week
Bribery trial puts an awkward spotlight on the “global home of the IPO”  Hong Kong’s stock exchange has just turned 21 with much to celebrate. Profits are at a record high. Fundraising tops the charts globally. Geopolitics is creating a steady pipeline of mega China firms looking to depart the US for a ...
VIEW MORE
30 June 2021
Male directors on Hong Kong boards: ACGA calls for a cap of 70%
Affirmative action is needed to narrow the diversity abyss. ACGA is calling for a 30% quota of women on boards within four years as a proactive step to curb male domination at Hong Kong’s listed companies. We believe bold moves are necessary and have outlined our proposal in a submission to HKEX as part of its consultation on the CG Code ...
VIEW MORE
15 June 2021
Hong Kong: one market, two systems?
Plans to further relax entry requirements for secondary listings will deepen a regulatory divide. A burgeoning group of secondary-listed firms including Alibaba, JD.com and NetEase who enjoy a slew of waivers from market rules now account for nearly a sixth of Hong Kong’s total market cap of HK$52 trillion. Their ranks are set to increase ...
VIEW MORE
27 May 2021
Who shifted to virtual AGMs during Covid? It wasn’t the big tech firms
Bricks and mortar embraced technology while the new economy kept things physical. Global tech giants such as Tencent, Xiaomi and Meituan shunned electronic shareholder meetings during Covid in 2020, opting for physical AGMs as their old economy peers such as banks and manufacturers went virtual. ACGA surveyed 600 companies across the ...
VIEW MORE
14 May 2021
Dishonest directors get a free pass in Hong Kong
Plan to limit public access to directors’ details a major blow to transparency. ACGA has written an open letter to the Hong Kong government and the Legislative Council urging the administration to shelve plans to withhold directors’ details from public scrutiny. There has been no public consultation on the proposed move despite public ...
VIEW MORE
  • 2022
    • Singapore, Malaysia turn the heat up on entrenched INEDs as Hong Kong backpedals
    • South Korea’s fork in the road
    • China: predictions and predicaments in the year of the tiger
    • China: live and let VIE
    • Corruption just got easier in Indonesia
    • Taiwan: boardroom battle leaves shareholders bothered and bewildered
    • Kangmei Pharmaceutical: China court dispenses strong medicine
    • Old school mentality in the new economy: Board diversity at the top 100 in Hong Kong
  • 2021
    • India nudges the elephant
    • Hong Kong shareholders unite for lawsuit over misleading IPO prospectus
    • India: Listen up
    • SPACs and sensibility
    • Fixing the unfixable?
    • Hong Kong’s cash for IPOs bribery trial enters the final stages
    • Beijing’s ByteDance play: the Party is just getting started
    • Hong Kong: cash for IPO approvals case kicks off next week
    • Male directors on Hong Kong boards: ACGA calls for a cap of 70%
    • Hong Kong: one market, two systems?
    • Who shifted to virtual AGMs during Covid? It wasn’t the big tech firms
    • Dishonest directors get a free pass in Hong Kong
Attribution policy
The public content on this site may be quoted with proper attribution. If you wish to reprint any section, permission is required from ACGA.
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
© Copyright ACGA Ltd, 1999 - 2022. All rights reserved.
Web Design by FEE Creative