Members of Plowman Chambers act for the Securities and Futures Commission in proceedings against Sir Dickson Poon and others for market misconduct involving insider dealing and breach of disclosure

On 31 July 2026, the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) found Sir Dickson Poon, founder and former Group Executive Chairman of Dickson Concepts (International) Limited, and his investment vehicle, Equity Advantage Limited, culpable of insider dealing in the shares of Dickson Concepts while in possession of price‑sensitive information relating to PayPal’s US$4 billion acquisition of Honey Science Corporation. The acquisition was expected to, and ultimately did, generate significant cash for Dickson Concepts.

At the time, Dickson Concepts held approximately 3.73% of Honey’s issued share capital—an interest not known to the market. News about the PayPal acquisition came to the attention of Sir Dickson and Pearson Poon (his son and also one of the directors of Dickson Concepts at the time) in around November 2019, with an expectation that the deal would potentially close within months. Upon completion, the company expected to receive approximately US$147.6 million (HK$1.15 billion) in cash, representing a gain of roughly HK$928.7 million over book value.

The MMT found that Sir Dickson reacted enthusiastically upon learning of the impending gain and prospective completion of the deal. He began purchasing Dickson Concepts shares immediately after the blackout period ended, acquiring around 2.76 million shares over 13 trading days.  Dickson Concepts only disclosed information to the general public relating to the PayPal acquisition and the company’s gain in early January 2020, after PayPal itself had announced the completion of the deal.

The MMT further determined that Dickson Concepts breached its disclosure requirement as a result of Sir Dickson’s decision not to inform the rest of the board or senior personnel of the inside information until late December 2019, when the company received the transactional documents.  The MMT did not find Pearson Poon responsible for the breach, on the basis that it was reasonable for him to rely on his father and other senior management to assess the price sensitivity of the information.

Sanctions and consequential orders against Sir Dickson, Equity Advantage Limited, and Dickson Concepts will be determined at a later stage.

Derek Chan SC, leading Jacky Lam, acted for the Securities and Futures Commission. 

The press release of the SFC can be viewed here.

See Derek’s profile here.

See Jacky’s profile here.