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HUTCHMED (HCM) Risk Analysis
Risk Overview Q4, 2019
Source: the company's latest filing for the period ended Dec 31, 2019, filed Mar 03, 2020
Risk Change Over Time
No filing history is available.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1The trading prices for our ADSs may be volatile which could result in substantial losses to you.
The market price of our ADSs has been volatile. From March 17, 2016 to March 1, 2020, the closing sale price of our ADSs ranged from a high of $41.14 to a low of $11.26 per ADS. The market price for our ADSs is likely to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to factors, including the following: - announcements of competitive developments;- regulatory developments affecting us, our customers or our competitors;- announcements regarding litigation or administrative proceedings involving us;- actual or anticipated fluctuations in our period-to-period operating results;- changes in financial estimates by securities research analysts;- additions or departures of our executive officers;- release or expiry of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding ordinary shares or ADSs; and - sales or perceived sales of additional ordinary shares or ADSs. In addition, the securities markets have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to the operating performance of particular companies. For example, in 2019, the exchanges in China experienced a sharp decline as a result of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and trade tensions with the United States. Prolonged global capital markets volatility may affect overall investor sentiment towards our ADSs, which would also negatively affect the trading prices for our ADSs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2We may in the future lose our foreign private issuer status under U.S. securities laws, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses.
We are a foreign private issuer as defined in the Securities Act, and therefore, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. The determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer's most recently completed second fiscal quarter, and, accordingly, the next determination will be made with respect to us on June 30, 2019. We would lose our foreign private issuer status if, for example, more than 50% of our ordinary shares are directly or indirectly held by residents of the United States on June 30, 2020 and we fail to meet additional requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status. If we lose our foreign private issuer status on this date, we will be required to file with the SEC periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms beginning on January 1, 2020, which are more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We will also have to mandatorily comply with U.S. federal proxy requirements, and our officers, directors and principal shareholders will become subject to the short-swing profit disclosure and recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act. In addition, we will lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements under the Nasdaq listing rules. As a U.S.-listed public company, should we lose our foreign private issuer status, we will incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we would not incur as a foreign private issuer.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3We could be adversely affected if satisfactory progress is not made in discussions between the SEC and the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, on the one hand, and Chinese regulators, on the other, regarding improved access to information and audit inspections of accounting firms by the SEC and PCAOB, and certain audit reports incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement were prepared by auditors who are not so inspected.
In late 2012, the SEC commenced administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, against the Chinese affiliates of the ‘‘big four'' accounting firms (including our auditors). The Rule 102(e) proceedings initiated by the SEC relate to these firms' inability to produce documents, including audit work papers, in response to the request of the SEC pursuant to Section 106 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as the auditors located in China are not in a position to lawfully produce documents directly to the SEC because of restrictions under PRC law and specific directives issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or CSRC. The issues raised by the proceedings are not specific to our auditors or to us, but affect all audit firms based in China and all companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China. In January 2014, the administrative judge reached an initial decision that the Chinese affiliates of the "big four" accounting firms should be barred from practicing before the SEC for six months. Thereafter, the accounting firms filed a petition for review of the initial decision, prompting the SEC Commissioners to review the initial decision, determine whether there had been any violation and, if so, determine the appropriate remedy to be placed on these audit firms. In February 2015, these Chinese affiliates each agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC and audit U.S.-listed companies. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures and to seek to provide the SEC with access to the Chinese firms' audit documents via the CSRC. Under the settlement, the underlying proceeding against these Chinese affiliates was deemed dismissed without prejudice for four years after entry of the settlement. The four-year mark occurred on February 6, 2019. We cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge these Chinese affiliates' compliance with U.S. law in connection with U.S. regulatory requests for audit work papers or if the results of such a challenge would result in the SEC imposing penalties such as suspensions. In the event that these Chinese affiliates become subject to additional legal challenges by the SEC or PCAOB, depending upon the final outcome, companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in China, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and could result in delisting. Moreover, any negative news about the proceedings against these audit firms may cause investor uncertainty regarding companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China and the market price of our ADSs may be adversely affected. Furthermore, because we have substantial operations within the PRC, our auditor and the auditors of certain of our joint ventures are not currently inspected by the PCAOB. This lack of PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating audits and quality control procedures of any auditors operating in China, including our auditor and the auditors of certain of our joint ventures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor's audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to PCAOB inspections. Investors may lose confidence in our reported financial information and procedures and the quality of our financial statements. In December 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement on regulatory access to audit and other information internationally that cites the ongoing challenges faced by them in overseeing the financial reporting of companies listed in the United States with operations in China, the absence of satisfactory progress in discussions on these issues with Chinese authorities and the potential for remedial action if significant information barriers persist. If our independent registered public accounting firm was denied, whether temporarily or otherwise, the ability to practice before the SEC and we were unable to timely find another registered public accounting firm to audit and issue an opinion on our financial statements, our financial statements could be determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act. As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China's, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of Congress that would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which the PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. The Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges (EQUITABLE) Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for such issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from national securities exchanges such as Nasdaq of issuers included for three consecutive years on the SEC's list. Enactment of this legislation or other efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information could cause investor uncertainty for affected issuers, including us, and the market price of our ADSs could be adversely affected. It is unclear if this proposed legislation will be enacted.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4Our largest shareholder owns a significant percentage of our ordinary shares, which may limit the ability of other shareholders to influence corporate matters.
As of March 1, 2020, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited owned approximately 48.2% of our ordinary shares. Accordingly, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited has a significant influence over the outcome of any corporate transaction or other matter submitted to shareholders for approval and the interests of Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited may differ from the interests of our other shareholders. Because we are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, certain matters, such as amendments to our Memorandum and Articles of Association, require approval of at least two-thirds of our shareholders by law subject to higher thresholds which we may set in our Articles of Association. Therefore, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited's approval will be required to achieve any such threshold. In addition, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited has and will continue to have a significant influence over the management and the strategic direction of our company.
- Debt & Financing - Risk 5We may need substantial additional funding for our product development programs and commercialization efforts. If we are unable to raise capital on acceptable terms when needed, we could incur losses and be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate such efforts.
We expect our expenses to increase significantly in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we or our collaboration partners advance the clinical development of our eight clinical drug candidates which are currently in active or completed clinical studies in various countries. We will incur significant expenses as we continue research and development and initiate additional clinical trials of, and seek regulatory approval for, these and other future drug candidates. In addition, we expect to incur significant commercialization expenses related to product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution in China for any of our unpartnered drug candidates that may be approved in the future. In particular, the costs that may be required for the manufacture of any drug candidate that receives regulatory approval may be substantial as we may have to modify or increase the production capacity at our current manufacturing facilities or contract with third-party manufacturers. We may also incur expenses as we create additional infrastructure and expand our U.S.-based clinical team to support our operations at our U.S. subsidiary, Hutchison MediPharma International Inc. Accordingly, we may need to obtain substantial funding in connection with our continuing operations through public or private equity offerings, debt financings, collaborations or licensing arrangements or other sources. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we could incur losses and be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or any future commercialization efforts. Our net cash used in operating activities was $8.9 million, $32.8 million and $80.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. We believe, however, that our expected cash flow from operations, including dividends from our Commercial Platform and milestone and other payments from our collaboration partners, our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments as well as our unutilized bank facilities as of December 31, 2019, including: (i) the aggregate HK$424.0 million ($54.4 million) revolving credit facilities with The HongKong Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, or HSBC, (ii) the HK$351.0 million ($45.0 million) revolving credit facility with Bank of America N.A., and (iii) the HK$156.0 million ($20.0 million) revolving credit facility with Deutsche Bank AG, Hong Kong Branch, or Deutsche Bank AG, will enable us to fund our operating expenses, debt service and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could use our capital resources sooner than we currently expect. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including: - the number and development requirements of the drug candidates we pursue;- the scope, progress, timing, results and costs of researching and developing our drug candidates, and conducting pre-clinical and clinical trials;- the cost, timing and outcome of regulatory review of our drug candidates;- the cost and timing of commercialization activities, including product manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, for our drug candidates for which we receive regulatory approval;- the amount and timing of any milestone payments from our collaboration partners, with whom we cooperate with respect to the development and potential commercialization of certain of our drug candidates;- the cash received from commercial sales of drug candidates for which we receive regulatory approval;- our ability to establish and maintain strategic partnerships, collaboration, licensing or other arrangements and the financial terms of such agreements;- the cost, timing and outcome of preparing, filing and prosecuting patent applications, maintaining and enforcing our intellectual property rights and defending any intellectual property-related claims;- our headcount growth and associated costs, particularly as we expand our clinical activities in the United States and Europe; and - the costs of operating as a public company listed in the United States and United Kingdom. Identifying potential drug candidates and conducting pre-clinical testing and clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that may take years to complete, and our commercial revenue, if any, will be derived from sales of products that we do not expect to be commercially available until we receive regulatory approval, if at all. We may never generate the necessary data or results required for certain drug candidates to obtain regulatory approval, and even if approved, they may not achieve commercial success. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.
Risk Highlights Q4, 2019
Risk Word Cloud
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 90
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1ChangedThe trading prices for our ADSs may be volatile which could result in substantial losses to you.
The market price of our ADSs has been volatile. From March 17, 2016 to March 1, 2020, the closing sale price of our ADSs ranged from a high of $41.14 to a low of $11.26 per ADS. The market price for our ADSs is likely to be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to factors, including the following: - announcements of competitive developments;- regulatory developments affecting us, our customers or our competitors;- announcements regarding litigation or administrative proceedings involving us;- actual or anticipated fluctuations in our period-to-period operating results;- changes in financial estimates by securities research analysts;- additions or departures of our executive officers;- release or expiry of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding ordinary shares or ADSs; and - sales or perceived sales of additional ordinary shares or ADSs. In addition, the securities markets have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to the operating performance of particular companies. For example, in 2019, the exchanges in China experienced a sharp decline as a result of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and trade tensions with the United States. Prolonged global capital markets volatility may affect overall investor sentiment towards our ADSs, which would also negatively affect the trading prices for our ADSs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2ChangedWe may in the future lose our foreign private issuer status under U.S. securities laws, which could result in significant additional costs and expenses.
We are a foreign private issuer as defined in the Securities Act, and therefore, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. The determination of foreign private issuer status is made annually on the last business day of an issuer's most recently completed second fiscal quarter, and, accordingly, the next determination will be made with respect to us on June 30, 2019. We would lose our foreign private issuer status if, for example, more than 50% of our ordinary shares are directly or indirectly held by residents of the United States on June 30, 2020 and we fail to meet additional requirements necessary to maintain our foreign private issuer status. If we lose our foreign private issuer status on this date, we will be required to file with the SEC periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms beginning on January 1, 2020, which are more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We will also have to mandatorily comply with U.S. federal proxy requirements, and our officers, directors and principal shareholders will become subject to the short-swing profit disclosure and recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act. In addition, we will lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements under the Nasdaq listing rules. As a U.S.-listed public company, should we lose our foreign private issuer status, we will incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we would not incur as a foreign private issuer.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3ChangedWe could be adversely affected if satisfactory progress is not made in discussions between the SEC and the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, on the one hand, and Chinese regulators, on the other, regarding improved access to information and audit inspections of accounting firms by the SEC and PCAOB, and certain audit reports incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement were prepared by auditors who are not so inspected.
In late 2012, the SEC commenced administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, against the Chinese affiliates of the ‘‘big four'' accounting firms (including our auditors). The Rule 102(e) proceedings initiated by the SEC relate to these firms' inability to produce documents, including audit work papers, in response to the request of the SEC pursuant to Section 106 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as the auditors located in China are not in a position to lawfully produce documents directly to the SEC because of restrictions under PRC law and specific directives issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or CSRC. The issues raised by the proceedings are not specific to our auditors or to us, but affect all audit firms based in China and all companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China. In January 2014, the administrative judge reached an initial decision that the Chinese affiliates of the "big four" accounting firms should be barred from practicing before the SEC for six months. Thereafter, the accounting firms filed a petition for review of the initial decision, prompting the SEC Commissioners to review the initial decision, determine whether there had been any violation and, if so, determine the appropriate remedy to be placed on these audit firms. In February 2015, these Chinese affiliates each agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC and audit U.S.-listed companies. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures and to seek to provide the SEC with access to the Chinese firms' audit documents via the CSRC. Under the settlement, the underlying proceeding against these Chinese affiliates was deemed dismissed without prejudice for four years after entry of the settlement. The four-year mark occurred on February 6, 2019. We cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge these Chinese affiliates' compliance with U.S. law in connection with U.S. regulatory requests for audit work papers or if the results of such a challenge would result in the SEC imposing penalties such as suspensions. In the event that these Chinese affiliates become subject to additional legal challenges by the SEC or PCAOB, depending upon the final outcome, companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in China, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and could result in delisting. Moreover, any negative news about the proceedings against these audit firms may cause investor uncertainty regarding companies listed in the United States with significant operations in China and the market price of our ADSs may be adversely affected. Furthermore, because we have substantial operations within the PRC, our auditor and the auditors of certain of our joint ventures are not currently inspected by the PCAOB. This lack of PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating audits and quality control procedures of any auditors operating in China, including our auditor and the auditors of certain of our joint ventures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor's audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to PCAOB inspections. Investors may lose confidence in our reported financial information and procedures and the quality of our financial statements. In December 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement on regulatory access to audit and other information internationally that cites the ongoing challenges faced by them in overseeing the financial reporting of companies listed in the United States with operations in China, the absence of satisfactory progress in discussions on these issues with Chinese authorities and the potential for remedial action if significant information barriers persist. If our independent registered public accounting firm was denied, whether temporarily or otherwise, the ability to practice before the SEC and we were unable to timely find another registered public accounting firm to audit and issue an opinion on our financial statements, our financial statements could be determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act. As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China's, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of Congress that would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which the PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. The Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges (EQUITABLE) Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for such issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from national securities exchanges such as Nasdaq of issuers included for three consecutive years on the SEC's list. Enactment of this legislation or other efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information could cause investor uncertainty for affected issuers, including us, and the market price of our ADSs could be adversely affected. It is unclear if this proposed legislation will be enacted.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4Raising capital may cause dilution to our shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to technologies or drug candidates.
We expect to finance our cash needs in part through cash flow from our operations, including dividends from our Commercial Platform, and we may also rely on raising capital through a combination of public or private equity offerings, debt financings and/or license and development agreements with collaboration partners. In addition, we may seek capital due to favorable market conditions or strategic considerations, even if we believe we have sufficient funds for our current or future operating plans. To the extent that we raise capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of our shareholders may be materially diluted, and the terms of such securities could include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our existing shareholders. Debt financing and preferred equity financing, if available, may involve agreements that include restrictive covenants that limit our ability to take specified actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. Additional debt financing would also result in increased fixed payment obligations. In addition, if we raise funds through collaborations, strategic partnerships or marketing, distribution or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or drug candidates or grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. We may also lose control of the development of drug candidates, such as the pace and scope of clinical trials, as a result of such third-party arrangements. If we are unable to raise funds through equity or debt financings when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts or grant rights to develop and market drug candidates that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices in relation to corporate governance matters that differ significantly from Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. These practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with corporate governance listing standards.
As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to take advantage of certain provisions in the Nasdaq listing rules that allow us to follow Cayman Islands law for certain governance matters. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands may differ significantly from corporate governance listing standards as, except for general fiduciary duties and duties of care, Cayman Islands law has no corporate governance regime which prescribes specific corporate governance standards. We intend to continue to follow Cayman Islands corporate governance practices in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq Global Select Market in respect of the following: (i) the majority independent director requirement under Section 5605(b)(1) of the Nasdaq listing rules, (ii) the requirement under Section 5605(d) of the Nasdaq listing rules that a remuneration committee comprised solely of independent directors governed by a remuneration committee charter oversee executive compensation and (iii) the requirement under Section 5605(e) of the Nasdaq listing rules that director nominees be selected or recommended for selection by either a majority of the independent directors or a nominations committee comprised solely of independent directors. Cayman Islands law does not impose a requirement that our board of directors consist of a majority of independent directors. Nor does Cayman Islands law impose specific requirements on the establishment of a remuneration committee or nominating committee or nominating process. Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. We have voluntarily complied with many of the principles of the U.K. published by the U.K. Financial Reporting Council which guides certain of our other corporate governance practices. See Item 6.C. "Board Practice-U.K. Corporate Governance Code" for more details.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6AddedWe are a Cayman Islands company. As judicial precedent regarding the rights of shareholders is more limited under Cayman Islands law than under U.S. law or English law, shareholders may have different shareholder rights than they would have under U.S. law or English law and may face difficulties in protecting your interests.
We are an exempted company with limited liability incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Articles of Association (as may be further amended from time to time), the Companies Law (as amended) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. This common law is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, which has persuasive, but not binding, authority on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in England and some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities law than the United States or the United Kingdom. In addition, some states in the United States, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, as a Cayman Islands exempted company, our shareholders have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records and accounts or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies with the exception that the shareholders may request a copy of the Articles of Association. Our directors have discretion under our Articles of Association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest. As a Cayman Islands company, we may not have standing to initiate a derivative action in U.S. federal courts or English courts. As a result, you may be limited in your ability to protect your interests if you are harmed in a manner that would otherwise enable you to sue in U.S. federal courts or English courts. In addition, shareholders of Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in U.S. federal courts or English courts. Some of our directors and executive officers reside outside of the United States and a substantial portion of their assets are located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the securities laws of the United States or otherwise. In addition, some of our operating subsidiaries are incorporated in China. To the extent our directors and executive officers reside in China or their assets are located in China, it may not be possible for investors to effect service of process upon us or our management inside China. Even if you are successful in bringing an action, the laws of the Cayman Islands and China may render you unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers. There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States or China, although the courts of the Cayman Islands may generally recognize and enforce by action at common law a non-penal judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits. As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of an English company or a U.S. company.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7The dual listing of our ordinary shares and the ADSs may adversely affect the liquidity and value of the ADSs.
Our ordinary shares continue to be listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. The dual listing of our ordinary shares and the ADSs may dilute the liquidity of these securities in one or both markets and may adversely affect the development of an active trading market for the ADSs in the United States. The price of the ADSs could also be adversely affected by trading in our ordinary shares on the AIM market. Furthermore, our ordinary shares trade on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in the form of depository interests, each of which is an electronic book-entry interest representing one of our ordinary shares. However, the ADSs are backed by physical ordinary share certificates, and the depositary for our ADS program is unable to accept depository interests into its custody in order to issue ADSs. As a result, if an ADS holder wishes to cancel its ADSs and instead hold depository interests for trading on the AIM market or vice versa, the issuance and cancellation process may be longer than if the depositary could accept such depository interests. Although our ordinary shares continue to be listed on the AIM market following our initial public offering in the United States completed in March 2016, we may decide at some point in the future to propose to our ordinary shareholders to delist our ordinary shares from the AIM market, and our ordinary shareholders may approve such delisting. We cannot predict the effect such delisting of our ordinary shares on the AIM market would have on the market price of the ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8As a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to certain U.S. securities law disclosure requirements that apply to a domestic U.S. issuer, which may limit the information publicly available to our shareholders.
As a foreign private issuer we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and therefore there may be less publicly available information about us than if we were a U.S. domestic issuer. For example, we are not subject to the proxy rules in the United States and disclosure with respect to our annual general meetings will be governed by the AIM Rules for Companies, or the AIM Rules, and Cayman Islands requirements. In addition, our officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and "short-swing" profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and the rules thereunder. Therefore, our shareholders may not know on a timely basis when our officers, directors and principal shareholders purchase or sell our ordinary shares or ADSs.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 9If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish negative evaluations of our business, the price of our ADSs could decline.
The trading market for our ADSs will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We may not be able to maintain continuous research coverage by industry or financial analysts. If one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 10Substantial future sales or perceived potential sales of our ADSs, ordinary shares or other equity or equity-linked securities in the public market could cause the price of our ADSs to decline significantly.
Sales of our ADSs, ordinary shares or other equity or equity-linked securities in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our ADSs to decline significantly. All of our ordinary shares represented by ADSs are freely transferable by persons other than our affiliates without restriction or additional registration under the Securities Act of 1933, or the Securities Act. The ordinary shares held by our affiliates are also available for sale, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act, under sales plans adopted pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 or otherwise. We have filed with the SEC a Registration Statement on Form F-3, commonly referred to as a "shelf registration," that permits us to sell any number of ADSs in a registered offering at our discretion. Since effectiveness, we have completed registered offerings raising aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $419.6 million under the shelf registration statement. In addition, our largest shareholder has completed registered secondary offerings raising aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $310.4 million for it as selling shareholder under the shelf registration statement. We may decide to conduct future offerings from time to time, and such sales could cause the price of our ADSs to decline significantly.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 11Securities traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange may carry a higher risk than shares traded on other exchanges and may impact the value of your investment.
Our ordinary shares are currently traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Investment in equities traded on AIM is perceived by some to carry a higher risk than an investment in equities quoted on exchanges with more stringent listing requirements, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. This is because the AIM market imposes less stringent ongoing reporting requirements than those other exchanges. You should be aware that the value of our ordinary shares may be influenced by many factors, some of which may be specific to us and some of which may affect AIM-listed companies generally, including the depth and liquidity of the market, our performance, a large or small volume of trading in our ordinary shares, legislative changes and general economic, political or regulatory conditions, and that the prices may be volatile and subject to extensive fluctuations. Therefore, the market price of our ordinary shares underlying the ADSs may not reflect the underlying value of our company.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 12The depositary for our ADSs gives us a discretionary proxy to vote our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs if you do not vote at shareholders' meetings, except in limited circumstances, which could adversely affect your interests.
Under the deposit agreement for the ADSs, the depositary gives us a discretionary proxy to vote our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs at shareholders' meetings if you do not vote, unless: - we do not wish a discretionary proxy to be given;- we are aware or should reasonably be aware that there is substantial opposition as to a matter to be voted on at the meeting; or - a matter to be voted on at the meeting would materially and adversely affect the rights of shareholders. The effect of this discretionary proxy is that you cannot prevent our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs from being voted, absent the situations described above, and it may make it more difficult for shareholders to influence the management of our company. Holders of our ordinary shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 13Holders of ADSs have fewer rights than shareholders and must act through the depositary to exercise their rights.
Holders of our ADSs do not have the same rights as our shareholders and may only exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under our memorandum and articles of association, an annual general meeting and any extraordinary general meeting at which the passing of a special resolution is to be considered may be called with not less than 21 clear days' notice, and all other extraordinary general meetings may be called with not less than 14 clear days' notice. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient notice of a shareholders' meeting to permit you to withdraw the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs to allow you to vote with respect to any specific matter. If we ask for your instructions, we will give the depositary notice of any such meeting and details concerning the matters to be voted upon at least 30 days in advance of the meeting date and the depositary will send a notice to you about the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. The depositary and its agents, however, may not be able to send voting instructions to you or carry out your voting instructions in a timely manner. We will make all reasonable efforts to cause the depositary to extend voting rights to you in a timely manner, but we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs. Furthermore, the depositary will not be liable for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote, for the manner in which any vote is cast or for the effect of any such vote. As a result, you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and you may lack recourse if your ADSs are not voted as you request. In addition, in your capacity as an ADS holder, you will not be able to call a shareholders' meeting.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 14You may have difficulty enforcing judgments obtained against us.
We are a company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, and substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States. Substantially all of our current operations are conducted in the PRC. In addition, most of our directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the United States. A substantial portion of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for you to effect service of process within the United States upon these persons. It may also be difficult for you to enforce in U.S. courts judgments obtained in U.S. courts based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us and our officers and directors, all of whom are not residents in the United States and whose assets are located outside the United States. In addition, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the Cayman Islands or the PRC would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 15ChangedOur largest shareholder owns a significant percentage of our ordinary shares, which may limit the ability of other shareholders to influence corporate matters.
As of March 1, 2020, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited owned approximately 48.2% of our ordinary shares. Accordingly, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited has a significant influence over the outcome of any corporate transaction or other matter submitted to shareholders for approval and the interests of Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited may differ from the interests of our other shareholders. Because we are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, certain matters, such as amendments to our Memorandum and Articles of Association, require approval of at least two-thirds of our shareholders by law subject to higher thresholds which we may set in our Articles of Association. Therefore, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited's approval will be required to achieve any such threshold. In addition, Hutchison Healthcare Holdings Limited has and will continue to have a significant influence over the management and the strategic direction of our company.
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