Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announces today (Wednesday) that a new online CCASS Shareholding Disclosure Service will be available via HKEx’s designated issuer website at http://www.hkexnews.hk from Monday, 28 April 2008.

The service will give the public greater access to information on Hong Kong-listed companies’ shareholders and further increase the transparency of CCASS shareholdings.  It will be free of charge and prior-registration will not be required. 

In its role as a central depository, CCASS, the Central Clearing and Settlement System, holds custody of shares for its Participants, including brokers, custodian banks and investors.  In quantity terms, over 70 per cent of the shares admitted into CCASS for clearing and settlement are currently under CCASS custody. CCASS generally clears and settles almost 100 per cent of the shares traded in HKEx’s securities market on an average day.  Shares held in CCASS are registered in the name of a nominee company, HKSCC Nominees Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HKEx.  Therefore, HKSCC Nominees Limited appears as a major shareholder on the Register of Members (ROM) of most Hong Kong-listed companies.  Hong Kong’s Companies Ordinance allows the public to inspect the ROMs of companies but the breakdown of CCASS shareholdings does not form part of the ROM so the public does not have access to the information.

Through the new service, the public will be able to look up the number of shares held in a Hong Kong-listed company by each CCASS Participant including Investor Participants who consent to the disclosure on a specified date in the past year by entering the date and the company’s stock code.