Companies Ordinance Rewrite

1. As a part of and for the purpose of the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance which aims at providing a legal infrastructure attuned to Hong Kong 's needs in the 21st century through streamlining and modernizing its provisions, strengthening its corporate governance framework and leveraging from company law developments around the world, to
   
1. review the current law and practice on company inspections and investigations under sections 142 to 152F of the Companies Ordinance including, but not limited to, the scope of the persons and companies to be investigated, the power of the Financial Secretary to seek interim relief and to suspend investigation, control over dissemination of inspector's reports, the power to place restrictions on share dealings and to recover expenses from relevant parties;
   
2. review the current law and practice in respect of the offences and punishment provisions of the Companies Ordinance, including but not limited to, the categorization of company law offences, the appropriateness of extending civil penalty orders to breaches of company law, the strengthening of existing criminal sanctions and the service of documents on companies;
   
3. identify and consider the issues and difficulties arising from (i) and (ii) above and the options available;
   
4. recommend appropriate legislative amendments to address any issues identified/considered under (iii) above; and
   
5. consider such other issues as may be raised by the Companies Bill Team (“CBT”).
   
2. In conducting the review, AG 4 shall have regard to, review and/or assess:
   
1. the Terms of Reference of the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance;
   
2. the existing law and proposals for law reform in other comparable jurisdictions, such as the UK Companies Act 1985, the UK Companies Act 2006, the Australian Corporations Act 2001, the New Zealand Companies Act 1993, the Singaporean Companies Act 1994; and any subsequent amendments to the CB and the company laws of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore as well as local and international commercial, regulatory and legal conditions, standards and developments;
   
3. the recommendations of and where provided, papers considered by the Standing Committee on Company Law Reform at its regular meetings; and
   
4. papers prepared by the CBT.