Lex专栏：香港上市新规适逢其时

Heard the one about the orchid king and the sports fabric maker? The former lasted a year as a public company in Hong Kong, the latter

听说过“兰花之王和体育布料生产商的故事吗？前者在香港上市一年，后者在香港上市维持了64天。当他们的上市文件被曝严重夸大收入之后，两家公司均被摘牌。根据昨天提出的新规则，首次公开发行(IPO)的保荐人可能因虚假陈述而被提起民事或刑事诉讼。也该这么做了。

64 days. Both were undone after it emerged that they grossly overstated revenues in their listing documents. Under new rules proposed yesterday, sponsors of initial public offerings could be sued or even prosecuted for misstatements. About time.

这位“兰花之王就是杨斌，一位与朝鲜有联系的华裔荷兰籍企业家，其从事兰花种植的欧亚农业(Euro-Asia Agricultural)2001年时在市场上颇受追捧，可后来人们意识到，其报告的海外销售额竟然是中国全部花卉出口价值的两倍。

The orchid king was Yang Bin, a Chinese-Dutch entrepreneur with North Korean links whose orchid producer, Euro-Asia Agricultural, was a market darling in 2001 before its reported overseas sales were shown to be twice the value of China’s entire floricultural exports.

2010年，体育布料生产商洪良国际(Hontex)在上市仅三个月之后就被香港证监会(SFC)停牌，创下香港上市时间最短的纪录。

In 2010, Hontex, a sports fabric maker, was suspended by the Securities and Futures Commission after just three months – a record for the shortest float in Hong Kong.

SFC的新规则将完全颠倒香港的上市过程。在往年中国大型国企接连上市的繁荣时期，IPO保荐人（银行和经纪人）往往只提交粗略的申请，在招股文件发表之前依靠监管机构提出棘手的问题。

The effect of the SFC’s new rules will be to flip the de facto Hong Kong listings process on its head. During the boom years spearheaded by China’s state-owned behemoths, IPO sponsors – banks and brokers – often filed sketchy applications and relied on regulators to ask the tricky questions before offer documents were published.

SFC提出的很多变革中的一项就是，申请草案将被公开。新规则的主旨很简单：保荐人需要自己检查，比如说花卉行业，并做好对自己的结论负责的准备。

Drafts will now be made public, among many changes the SFC is proposing. The essence of the new rules is simple: sponsors should do their own checks of, say, the flower industry, and be prepared to stand by them.

作为进入中国的门户，香港获得了巨大的利益。Dealogic数据显示，2012年之前的三年，港交所比纽交所筹资总额高出三分之一。尽管现在大型国企的IPO有所减少，港交所依然是中国民营企业筹集资金的最佳场所。

Hong Kong has profited greatly from being the gateway to China. In the three years before 2012, the exchange raised a third more equity than New York, according to Dealogic. While IPOs of state-owned giants are now fewer, it is still the most likely avenue for private Chinese companies seeking funds.

兰花丑闻爆发后，SFC曾试图让保荐人承担责任，但包括大型国际银行在内的业内机构称其不合理。在全球投资者和监管者纷纷对中国公司账目产生疑问之际，香港作为未来金融中心的地位，恰恰取决于这些非常合理的措施。

Last time the SFC tried to put the onus on sponsors in the wake of the orchid scandal, the industry, including the big international banks, called it unreasonable. With investors and regulators around the world querying Chinese companies’ accounts, the city’s future status as a financial centre depends on these very reasonable steps.