24 January 2024
Kwok Yih & Chan is pleased to have advised and assisted MIE Holdings Corporation on the resumption of trading in its shares on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.
MIE Holdings and its subsidiaries are principally engaged in the exploration, development, production and sale of crude oil in the PRC under production sharing contracts. Trading in its shares on the Main Board was suspended on 3 April 2023, pending publication of its FY2022 annual results. The delay in publication of the FY2022 annual results was due to certain matters raised by its former auditor during the audit, including the potential non-compliance of Chapters 14 and 14A of the Listing Rules relating to a guarantee provided by a subsidiary of MIE Holdings for a loan owed by a director and controlling shareholder of MIE Holdings, and certain repayments of the loan allegedly by another subsidiary of MIE Holdings and other third parties.
MIE Holdings was requested by the Stock Exchange to fulfil certain resumption guidance , including to: (a) conduct an appropriate independent investigation into the guarantee and the repayments, announce the findings and take remedial actions; (b) demonstrate that there is no reasonable regulatory concern about management integrity; (c) publish all outstanding financial results required under the Listing Rules and address any audit modifications; (d) conduct an independent internal control review and demonstrate that MIE Holdings has in place adequate internal controls and procedures to meet the obligations under the Listing Rules; and (e) demonstrate compliance with Rule 13.24 of the Listing Rules.
BT Corporate Governance Limited was appointed by MIE Holdings as the investigation consultant to conduct the required independent investigation and perform the internal control review. Findings of the investigation and the internal control review were announced and published by MIE Holdings. Following completion of the investigation, MIE Holdings published its FY2022 annual results with no audit modification, and that the matters previously raised during the audit have been addressed and concluded. As the sole operator of an oilfield located in Daan, Jilin Province of the PRC, MIE Holdings demonstrated that it has a viable and sustainable business with sufficient level of operations and assets of sufficient value to support its operations to meet the requirements under Rule 13.24 of the Listing Rules. As MIE Holdings has remedied the issues causing its trading suspension and fulfilled the resumption guidance, trading in its shares on the Main Board resumed on 19 January 2024.
The team was led by Conrad Chan, Leon Saw and Jenny Ng, who are the firm’s capital markets & corporate finance partners; and they were supported by Edki Sek and Rachel Lai. Amasse Capital is the financial adviser to MIE Holdings.