As most of you are aware, earlier this year the new Companies Ordinance came into force. At that time the parts of the old Companies Ordinance that had not been amended, effectively s.166 onwards, were renamed as The Companies (Winding-up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance – just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it??
Following a period of consultation, the Government has now published its conclusions on the proposed improvements to the legislative framework for dealing with corporate insolvency in Hong Kong.
A copy of the proposals can be found here at the website of the FSTB.
The intention is that an amendment bill will be introduced to LegCo in 2015 with the aim that it will pass into law before the end of the current LegCo session in 2016. However, only then will the Government look at the necessary amendments to the Companies Winding-up Rules. It’s likely that these will need substantial changes to reflect the changes in the primary legislation. So in practice, it’s likely that it will be 2018 or 2019 at the earliest before the new legislation actually comes into operation.
The changes to the primary legislation are potentially quite extensive, although there’s an argument that they are not very far-reaching. Over the next few weeks we will be publishing a series of posts in which we will look at the likely changes and their potential effects on the landscape for dealing with corporate insolvency in the future.