The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Exchange), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx), today (Friday) published the findings of its fifth review of listed issuers' corporate governance practices.

The Code became effective in 2005, and on 1 April 2012 substantial amendments were implemented resulting in the addition of 30 new Code Provisions¹. The fifth review involved analysing the disclosures made by 1,083 issuers in their 2012 annual reports, focusing on the period from 1 April to 31 December 2012 during which the revised Code applied. The review’s purpose is to determine the effectiveness of the Code’s implementation.

The review's findings included the following:

• 36 per cent of issuers complied with all the Code Provisions.
  
• 97 per cent of issuers complied with 70 or more Code Provisions, out of 74.
  
• 84 per cent of issuers complied with all the 30 new Code Provisions in the first eight months of their implementation.
  
• 43 per cent of issuers complied with all the 44 Code Provisions that have been in the previous version of the Code. This compared favourably with the 2009 review when 39 per cent of the issuers fully complied under the same Code Provisions. This compliance rate also compared favourably with the findings of all previous reviews.

“Our latest review shows that issuers have embraced the changes to the Code and have achieved a high rate of compliance. This is a positive sign that issuers recognise the importance of corporate governance and are more ready to adopt a higher standard of governance” said David Graham, HKEx's Chief Regulatory Officer and Head of Listing.

The report, entitled, “Analysis of Corporate Governance Practice Disclosure in 2012 Annual Reports” is available under the Issuer-related Information section of the HKExnews website.