Exhibit 1.1
THE COMPANIES ACT (AS REVISED)
OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS
COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES
FIFTH AMENDED AND RESTATED
MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION
OF
CONNECT BIOPHARMA HOLDINGS LIMITED
(adopted by a Special Resolution passed on March 12, 2021 and effective immediately
prior to the completion of the initial public offering of the Company’s American Depositary
Shares representing its Ordinary Shares)
THE COMPANIES ACT (AS REVISED)
OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS
COMPANY LIMITED BY SHARES
FIFTH AMENDED AND RESTATED
MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION
OF
CONNECT BIOPHARMA HOLDINGS LIMITED
(adopted by a Special Resolution passed on March 12, 2021 and effective immediately prior to
the completion of the initial public offering of the Company’s American Depositary Shares
representing its Ordinary Shares)
TABLE A
The regulations contained or incorporated in Table ‘A’ in the First Schedule of the Companies Act shall not apply to the Company and the following Articles shall comprise the Articles of Association of the Company.
INTERPRETATION
“ADS” | means an American Depositary Share representing Ordinary Shares; |
“Affiliate” | means in respect of a Person, any other Person that, directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, such Person, and (i) in the case of a natural person, shall include, without limitation, such person’s spouse, parents, children, siblings, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, a trust for the benefit of any of the foregoing, and a corporation, partnership or any other entity wholly or jointly owned by any of the foregoing, and (ii) in the case of an entity, shall include a partnership, a corporation or any other entity or any natural person which directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, such entity. The term “control” shall mean the ownership, directly or indirectly, of shares possessing more than fifty per cent (50%) of the voting power of the corporation, partnership or other entity (other than, in the case of a corporation, securities having such power only by reason of the happening of a contingency), or having the power to control the management or elect a majority of members to the board of directors or equivalent decision-making body of such corporation, partnership or other entity; |
“Articles” | means these articles of association of the Company, as amended or substituted from time to time; |
“Board” and “Board of Directors” and “Directors” | means the directors of the Company for the time being, or as the case may be, the directors assembled as a board or as a committee thereof; |
“Chairman” | means the chairman of the Board of Directors; | |
“Class” or “Classes” | means any class or classes of Shares as may from time to time be issued by the Company; | |
“Commission” | means the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America or any other federal agency for the time being administering the Securities Act; | |
“Communication Facilities” | means video, video-conferencing, internet or online conferencing applications, telephone or tele-conferencing and/or any other video‑communications, internet or online conferencing application or telecommunications facilities by means of which all Persons participating in a meeting are capable of hearing and being heard by each other; | |
“Company” | means Connect Biopharma Holding Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company; | |
“Companies Act” | means the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands and any statutory amendment or re-enactment thereof; | |
“Company’s Website” | means the main corporate/investor relations website of the Company, the address or domain name of which has been disclosed in any registration statement filed by the Company with the Commission in connection with its initial public offering of ADSs, or which has otherwise been notified to Shareholders; | |
“Designated Stock Exchange” | means the Nasdaq Global Market and any other stock exchange in the United States on which any Shares or ADSs are listed for trading; | |
“Designated Stock Exchange Rules” | means the relevant code, rules and regulations, as amended, from time to time, applicable as a result of the original and continued listing of any Shares or ADSs on the Designated Stock Exchange; | |
“electronic” | has the meaning given to it in the Electronic Transactions Act and any amendment thereto or re-enactments thereof for the time being in force and includes every other law incorporated therewith or substituted therefor; | |
“electronic communication” | means electronic posting to the Company’s Website, transmission to any number, address or internet website or other electronic delivery methods as otherwise decided and approved by not less than two-thirds of the vote of the Board; | |
“Electronic Transactions Act” | means the Electronic Transactions Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands and any statutory amendment or re-enactment thereof; | |
“electronic record” | has the meaning given to it in the Electronic Transactions Act and any amendment thereto or re-enactments thereof for the time being in force and includes every other law incorporated therewith or substituted therefor; | |
“Memorandum of Association” | means the memorandum of association of the Company, as amended or substituted from time to time; |
“Ordinary Resolution” | 1. means a resolution: a. passed by a simple majority of the votes cast by such Shareholders as, being entitled to do so, vote in person or, where proxies are allowed, by proxy or, in the case of corporations, by their duly authorised representatives, at a general meeting of the Company held in accordance with these Articles; or b. approved in writing by all of the Shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the Company in one or more instruments each signed by one or more of the Shareholders and the effective date of the resolution so adopted shall be the date on which the instrument, or the last of such instruments, if more than one, is executed; |
“Ordinary Share” | means an Ordinary Share of a par value of US$0.000174 in the capital of the Company, having the rights provided for in these Articles; |
“paid up” | means paid up as to the par value in respect of the issue of any Shares and includes credited as paid up; |
“Person” | means any natural person, firm, company, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association or other entity (whether or not having a separate legal personality) or any of them as the context so requires; |
“Preferred Share” | means a Preferred Share of a par value of US$0.000174 in the capital of the Company, having the rights provided for in these Articles; |
“Present” | means, in respect of any Person, such Person’s presence at a general meeting of Shareholders, which may be satisfied by means of such Person or, if a corporation or other non-natural Person, its duly authorized representative (or, in the case of any Shareholder, a proxy which has been validly appointed by such Shareholder in accordance with these Articles), being: (a) physically present at the meeting; or (b) in the case of any meeting at which Communications Facilities are permitted in accordance with these Articles, including any Virtual Meeting, connected by means of the use of such Communication Facilities; |
“Register” | means the register of Members of the Company maintained in accordance with the Companies Act; |
“Registered Office” | means the registered office of the Company as required by the Companies Act; |
“Seal” | means the common seal of the Company (if adopted) including any facsimile thereof; |
“Secretary” | means any Person appointed by the Directors to perform any of the duties of the secretary of the Company; |
“Securities Act” | means the Securities Act of 1933 of the United States of America, as amended, or any similar federal statute and the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder, all as the same shall be in effect at the time; |
“Share” | means a share in the capital of the Company. All references to “Shares” herein shall be deemed to be Shares of any or all Classes as the context may require. For the avoidance of doubt in these Articles the expression “Share” shall include a fraction of a Share; |
“Shareholder” or “Member” | means a Person who is registered as the holder of one or more Shares in the Register; |
“Share Premium Account” | means the share premium account established in accordance with these Articles and the Companies Act; |
“signed” | means bearing a signature or representation of a signature affixed by mechanical means or an electronic symbol or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic communication and executed or adopted by a Person with the intent to sign the electronic communication; |
“Special Resolution” | 2. means a special resolution of the Company passed in accordance with the Companies Act, being a resolution: a. passed by not less than two-thirds of the votes cast by such Shareholders as, being entitled to do so, vote in person or, where proxies are allowed, by proxy or, in the case of corporations, by their duly authorised representatives, at a general meeting of the Company of which notice specifying the intention to propose the resolution as a special resolution has been duly given; or b. approved in writing by all of the Shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of the Company in one or more instruments each signed by one or more of the Shareholders and the effective date of the special resolution so adopted shall be the date on which the instrument or the last of such instruments, if more than one, is executed; |
“Treasury Share” | means a Share held in the name of the Company as a treasury share in accordance with the Companies Act; |
“United States” | means the United States of America, its territories, its possessions and all areas subject to its jurisdiction; and. |
“Virtual Meeting” | means any general meeting of the Shareholders at which the Shareholders (and any other permitted participants of such meeting, including without limitation the chairman of the meeting and any Directors) are permitted to attend and participate solely by means of Communications Facilities. |
PRELIMINARY
SHARES
and, for such purposes, the Directors may reserve an appropriate number of Shares for the time being unissued. The Company shall not issue Shares to bearer.
MODIFICATION OF RIGHTS
CERTIFICATES
FRACTIONAL SHARES
LIEN
CALLS ON SHARES
FORFEITURE OF SHARES
TRANSFER OF SHARES
TRANSMISSION OF SHARES
REGISTRATION OF EMPOWERING INSTRUMENTS
ALTERATION OF SHARE CAPITAL
REDEMPTION, PURCHASE AND SURRENDER OF SHARES
TREASURY SHARES
GENERAL MEETINGS
NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETINGS
PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS
VOTES OF SHAREHOLDERS
provided that the Directors may in the notice convening the meeting, or in an instrument of proxy sent out by the Company, direct that the instrument appointing a proxy may be deposited at such other time (no later than the time for holding the meeting or adjourned meeting) at the Registered Office or at such other place as is specified for that purpose in the notice convening the meeting, or in any instrument of proxy sent out by the Company. The Chairman may in any event at his discretion direct that an instrument of proxy shall be deemed to have been duly deposited. An instrument of proxy that is not deposited in the manner permitted shall be invalid.
CORPORATIONS ACTING BY REPRESENTATIVES AT MEETINGS
DEPOSITARY AND CLEARING HOUSES
DIRECTORS
ALTERNATE DIRECTOR OR PROXY
POWERS AND DUTIES OF DIRECTORS
BORROWING POWERS OF DIRECTORS
THE SEAL
DISQUALIFICATION OF DIRECTORS
PROCEEDINGS OF DIRECTORS
PRESUMPTION OF ASSENT
DIVIDENDS
ACCOUNTS, AUDIT AND ANNUAL RETURN AND DECLARATION
CAPITALISATION OF RESERVES
and allot the Shares or debentures, credited as fully paid, to the Shareholders (or as they may direct) in those proportions, or partly in one way and partly in the other, but the Share Premium Account, the capital redemption reserve and profits which are not available for distribution may, for the purposes of this Article, only be applied in paying up unissued Shares to be allotted to Shareholders credited as fully paid;
and any such agreement made under this authority being effective and binding on all those Shareholders; and
SHARE PREMIUM ACCOUNT
NOTICES
In proving service by post or courier service it shall be sufficient to prove that the letter containing the notice or documents was properly addressed and duly posted or delivered to the courier service.
No other Person shall be entitled to receive notices of general meetings.
INFORMATION
INDEMNITY
unless the same shall happen through such Indemnified Person’s own dishonesty, wilful default or fraud.
FINANCIAL YEAR
NON-RECOGNITION OF TRUSTS
WINDING UP
AMENDMENT OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
CLOSING OF REGISTER OR FIXING RECORD DATE
REGISTRATION BY WAY OF CONTINUATION
DISCLOSURE