January 2017 - Reverse-Merger.com

SEC Issues New C&DI On Abbreviated Debt Tender And Debt Exchange Offers

Posted by Securities Attorney Laura Anthony | January 31, 2017 Tags: C&DI, Five-Day Tender Offer, SEC, Should I accept a Tender Offer, Tender Offer Example, Tender Offer Private Company, Tender Offer Process, Tender Offer Rules, Tender Offer vs Merger, What does it mean to tender shares, What is a Tender Offer?

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The SEC has been issuing a slew of new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DI”) on numerous topics in the past few months. On November 18, 2016, the SEC issued seven new C&DI providing guidance on tender offers in general as well as on abbreviated debt tender and debt exchange offers, known as the Five-Day Tender Offer. The guidance related to the Five-Day Tender Offer clarifies a previously issued January 2015 no-action letter on the subject. As I have not written on the subject of tender offers previously, I include a very high-level summary of tender offers in general and together with specific discussion on the new C&DI.

What Is a Tender Offer?

A tender offer is not statutorily defined, but from a high level is a broad solicitation made by a company or a third party to purchase a substantial portion of the outstanding debt or equity of a company. A tender offer is set for a specific period of time and at a specific price. The purchase offer can be for cash or for equity in either the same or another company (an exchange offer). Where a tender offer is an exchange offer, the offeror must either register the securities being offered for exchange or there must be an available exemption from registration such as under Section 4(a)(2) or Rule 506 of Regulation D.

A tender offer must be made at a fixed price and can include conditions to a closing, such as receiving a certain minimum percentage of accepted tenders. If the person making the tender may own more than 5% of the company’s securities after the tender offer is completed, they must file a Schedule TO with the SEC, including certain delineated disclosures.

Where a tender offer is being made by a company or its management, it is often in association with a going private transaction. Where it is being made by a third party, it is generally for the purpose of acquiring control over the target company and can be either a friendly or hostile takeover attempt.

As mentioned, a tender offer is not statutorily defined but rather can be applied to a broad array of transactions that include the change of ownership of securities. Over the years, a judicially established eight-factor test is used to determine whether the tender offer rules have been implicated and need to be complied with. In particular, in Wellman v. Dickinson, 475 F. Supp. 783 (S.D,N.Y. 1979) the court listed the following eight factors in determining whether a transaction is a tender offer:

An active and widespread solicitation of public shareholders for the shares of a company is made;
A solicitation is made for a substantial percentage of the company’s securities;
The offer to purchase is made at a premium to prevailing market price;
The terms of the offer are firm rather than negotiable;
The offer is contingent on the tender of a fixed number of minimum shares and may be subject to a fixed maximum;
The offer is open for a limited period of time;
The offeree is subjected to pressure to sell their securities; and
Public announcements are made regarding the offer.

Not all factors need be present for a transaction to be considered a tender offer, but rather all facts and circumstances must be considered. The SEC has historically focused on whether an investor is being asked to make an investment decision and whether there is pressure to sell. Once it is determined that a transaction involves a tender offer, the tender offer rules and regulations must be complied with.

Tender offers are governed by the Williams Act, which added Sections 13(d), 13(e), 14(d) and 14(e) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The principle behind the regulatory framework is to ensure proper disclosures to, and equal treatment of, all offerees and to prevent unfair selling pressure. Section 14(d) and Regulation 14D govern tender offers by third parties. Section 14(d) and Regulation 14D set forth the SEC filing requirements and information that must be delivered to those being solicited in association with a tender offer, including the requirement to file a Schedule TO with the SEC.

As with any disclosure document relating to the solicitation or sale of securities, a Schedule TO is comprehensive and includes:

(i) A summary term sheet;

(ii) Information about the issuer;

(iii) The identity and background of the filing persons;

(iv) The terms of the transactions;

(v) Any past contacts, transactions and negotiations involving the filing person and the target company and offerees;

(vi) The purposes of the transactions and plans or proposals;

(vii) The source and amount of funds or other consideration for the tender offer;

(viii) Interests in the subject securities, including direct and indirect ownership;

(ix) Persons/assets retained, employed, compensated or used in the tender process. In its November 18, 2016 C&DI the SEC clarifies that the terms of employment and compensation to financial advisors engaged by an issuer’s board or independent committee to provide financial advice, would need to be disclosed in this section even if such financial advisor is not soliciting or making recommendations to shareholders. In addition, another of the new C&DI clarifies the specificity needed related to compensatory disclosure for financial advisors that are active in soliciting or making recommendations to shareholders. Such disclosure may not always need to include the exact dollar figure of the fees paid or payable to the financial advisor but must include a detailed discussion of the types of fees (such as independence fees, sale or success fees, advisory fees, discretionary fees, bonuses, etc.), when and how such fees will be paid, including any contingencies and any other information that would reasonably be material for a shareholder to judge the merits and objectivity of the financial advisor’s recommendations.

(x) Financial Statements;

(xi) Additional information as appropriate; and

(xii) Exhibits.

Section 14(e) and Regulation 14E contain the antifraud provisions associated with tender offers and apply to all tender offers, whether by insiders or third parties, for cash or an exchange, and whether full or mini offers. Section 14(e) prohibits an offeror from making any untrue statement of a material fact, or omitting to state any material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading. Section 14(e) also prohibits any fraudulent, deceptive or manipulative acts in connection with a tender offer.

Regulation 14E contains certain requirements designed to prevent fraudulent conduct and must be complied with in all tender offers. Regulation 14E requires:

(i) A tender offer must be open for at least 20 days;

(ii) The percentage of the class of securities being sought and the consideration offered cannot change unless the offer remains open for at least an additional 10 business days following notice of such change;

(iii) The offeror must promptly make full payment, or return the tendered securities, upon the termination, withdrawal or closing of the offering. Prompt payment is generally considered to be within 3 days;

(iv) Public notice must be made of any extension of an offer, and such notice must disclose the amount of any securities already tendered. Public notice is usually made via a press release in a widely disseminated publication such as the Wall Street Journal;

(v) The company subject to a tender offer must disclose its position on the tender offer (for, against, or expresses no opinion) to its shareholders. The disclosure must be made within 10 days of notice of the tender offer being provided to the target shareholders;

(vi) All parties must be mindful of insider trading rules and avoid trading when in possession of information related to the launch of a tender offer. Where the company is tendering for its own shares, it must be extra careful and cannot conduct a tender while in possession of insider information;

(vii) Tendering persons must have a net long position in the subject security at the time of tendering and at the end of the proration period in connection with partial tender offers (and not engage in short-tendering and hedged tendering in connection with their tenders); and

(viii) Subject to certain exceptions, no covered person can purchase or arrange to purchase any of the subject securities from the time of announcement of the tender until its completion through closing, termination or expiration. A covered person is broadly defined to include the offeror and its affiliates, including its dealer-manager and advisors.

Section 13(e) governs the information delivery requirements for the repurchase of equity securities by an issuer company and its affiliates. Rule 13e-4 sets forth disclosure, filing and procedural requirements for a company tendering for its own equity securities, including the filing of a Schedule TO with the SEC. An equity security is broadly defined and includes securities convertible into equity securities such as options, warrants and convertible debt but does not include non-convertible debt. Companies often use the SEC no-action letter process for relief as to whether a particular security is an equity security invoking Rule 13e-4 or similar enough to debt as to not require compliance with the rule.

In addition to an initial Schedule TO, which must be filed with the SEC on the commencement date of the offer, under Rule 13e-4, a company must file any of its written communications related to the tender offer, an amendment to the Schedule TO reporting any material changes, and a final amendment to the Schedule TO reporting the results of the tender offer. Moreover, a company must further disseminate information through either mail or widely distributed newspaper publications or both.

Where a company or affiliate is the offeror, Rule 13e-4 requires that such offeror allow a tendering shareholder the right to withdraw their tender at any time while the tender offer remains open. The tender offer must be made to all holders of the subject class of securities and where an offer is oversubscribed, the company must accept tenders up to its disclosed limit on a pro rata basis.

There are several exemptions from the Section 13(e) and Rule 13e-4 requirements. Also, careful consideration should be given when a company embarks on a stock repurchase program under Rule 10b-18 to ensure that such program does not actually result in a tender offer necessitating compliance with the tender offer rules. For a summary of Rule 10b-18, see my blog HERE.

Where the target company remains public, upon acquiring 5% or more of the outstanding securities, Section 13(d) requires that a Schedule 13D must be filed by the acquirer. For more information on Schedule 13D disclosure requirements, see my blog HERE.

Mini-tenders

Many provisions of the Williams Act, including Sections 13(d), 13(e), 14(d) and Regulation 14D do not have to be complied with for a tender offer that will result in less than 5% ownership (“mini-tender”); however, the antifraud provisions still apply. Mini-tenders are really just a bid for the purchase of stock, usually through a purchase order with a broker, which bid must remain open for a minimum of 20 days. A mini-tender bidder must make payment in full promptly upon a closing. Bidders in a mini-tender do not have to file documents with the SEC or provide the delineated disclosures required by a full tender offer.

Key differences between a mini-tender and full tender offer include: (i) a mini-tender is not required to file a Schedule TO with the SEC, and thus a target company is not given the opportunity to file a responsive Schedule 14d-9; (ii) a mini-tender bidder is not required to treat all offerees equally; (iii) a mini-tender bidder is not required to carve back offerees on a pro rata basis if oversubscribed; (iv) a mini-tender is not required to allow investors to change their minds and withdraw shares prior to a full closing; (v) a mini-tender deadline can be extended indefinitely.

Mini-tenders tend to be at or below market price, whereas full tenders tend to be at a premium to market price, reflecting the increased value in obtaining a control position over the target company. As a result of the lack of investor protections, and that mini-tenders are generally below market price, they are considered predatory and have a high level of negative stigma. The primary criticism against a mini-tender is that target shareholders are likely confused about the distinctions between the mini and full tender and do not realize that the offer is below market, irrevocable, and does not require equal and fair treatment for all shareholders, although all of this information would be required to be disclosed under the still applicable tender offer antifraud provisions.

There does not appear to be a rational reason as to why an investor in a liquid market would choose to sell to a bidder below market price unless there is confusion as to the terms of the offer being presented. The SEC even has a warning page on mini-tenders urging investors to carefully review all terms and conditions. Where a market is not liquid, a mini-tender could be a viable exit strategy, though in practice, mini-tenders are largely launched for the purchase of larger, highly liquid securities.

Abbreviated Debt Tender Offers (Five Business Day Tender Offer)

As discussed above, Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act and Regulation 14E set forth certain requirements for all tender offers designed to prevent fraud and manipulative acts and practices. One of those requirements is that a tender offer be open for a minimum of 20 business days and remain open for at least an additional 10 business days after notice of any change in the consideration offered.

Beginning in 1986, the SEC began issuing a series of no-action letters providing relief from the 20-day rule for certain non-convertible, investment-grade debt tender offers. The SEC recognized that tender offers in a straight debt transaction are often effectuated to refinance debt at a lower interest rate or to extend looming maturity dates. The tender is often at a small premium to the prevailing market or pay-off price and does not include any equity upside or kicker considerations. All parties to a debt tender offer are motivated to move quickly and without the equity considerations; the SEC recognized that the same investor protections are not necessary as in an equity tender offer.

The SEC relief generally required that the debt tender remain open for 7-10 days. In January 2015, in response to a request from numerous top industry law firms, the SEC granted further no-action relief establishing a Five Business Day Tender Offer for non-convertible debt securities, which meets certain delineated terms and conditions.

The conditions to a Five Business Day Tender Offer include:

(i) Immediate Widespread Dissemination – the debt tender must begin with immediate (prior to 12:00 noon on the first day of the offer) widespread dissemination of the offer including by press release and Form 8-K containing certain disclosures and including a hyperlink to an Internet address where the offeree can effectuate the tender. The November 18, 2016 C&DI clarifies that a foreign private issuer may satisfy this requirement by filing a Form 6-K instead of Form 8-K.

(ii) Be made for non-convertible debt securities only;

(iii) Only be initiated by the issuer of the debt securities or a direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiary or parent company;

(iv) Be made solely for cash consideration or an exchange for Qualified Debt Securities. Qualified Debt Securities means non-convertible debt securities that are identical in all material respects (including issuer, guarantor, collateral, priority, and terms and covenants) to the debt securities that are the subject of the tender offer except for the maturity date, interest payment and record dates, redemption provisions and interest rate, and provided further that to be Qualified Debt Securities, all interest payments must be solely in cash (no equity) and the weighted average life to maturity must be longer than the debt that is subject to the offer.

(v) Be open to all record and beneficial holders of the debt securities, provided that in an exchange offer, the exchange offer can be limited to Qualified Institutional Buyers as defined in Rule 144A and/or non-U.S. persons as defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act, and as long as all other record and beneficial holders are offered cash with a value reasonably equal to the value of the exchange securities being offered to those qualified to receive such exchange. The November 18, 2016 C&DI clarifies that although the offer has to be made equally to all holders, like other tender offers, it can have conditions to closing such as that a minimum number of debt holders accept the tender.

(vi) The November 18, 2016 C&DI clarifies that where the offer includes an exchange of Qualified Debt Securities to Qualified Institutional Buyers as defined in Rule 144A of the Securities Act, the cash consideration to the other record holders can be calculated by reference to a benchmark as long as it is the same benchmark used to calculate the value of the Qualified Debt Securities.

(vii) Not be made in connection with the solicitation of consents to amend the outstanding debt securities;

(viii) Not be made if a default exists with respect to the subject tender, or any other, material credit agreement to which the company is a party;

(ix) Not be made if at the time of the offer the company is in bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings;

(x) Not be financed with the proceeds of a Senior Indebtedness;

(xi) Permits tender procedures through a certificate as long as the actual debt security is delivered within 2 business days of closing;

(xii) Provide for certain withdrawal rights until the expiration of the offer or any extension;

(xiii) Provide that consideration will be promptly paid for the tendered debt securities; and

(xiv) Not be made in connection with a change of control, merger or other extraordinary transaction involving the company and not be commenced within ten business days of an announcement of the purchase, sale or transfer of a material subsidiary or amount of assets. The November 18, 2016 C&DI clarifies that a company could announce a plan to conduct a Five Business Day Tender Offer but could not commence the offer until the ten-business-day period had passed.

The Author

Laura Anthony, Esq.
Founding Partner
Legal & Compliance, LLC
Corporate, Securities and Going Public Attorneys
LAnthony@LegalAndCompliance.com

Securities attorney Laura Anthony and her experienced legal team provides ongoing corporate counsel to small and mid-size private companies, OTC and exchange traded issuers as well as private companies going public on the NASDAQ, NYSE MKT or over-the-counter market, such as the OTCQB and OTCQX. For nearly two decades Legal & Compliance, LLC has served clients providing fast, personalized, cutting-edge legal service. The firm’s reputation and relationships provide invaluable resources to clients including introductions to investment bankers, broker dealers, institutional investors and other strategic alliances. The firm’s focus includes, but is not limited to, compliance with the Securities Act of 1933 offer sale and registration requirements, including private placement transactions under Regulation D and Regulation S and PIPE Transactions as well as registration statements on Forms S-1, S-8 and S-4; compliance with the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including registration on Form 10, reporting on Forms 10-Q, 10-K and 8-K, and 14C Information and 14A Proxy Statements; Regulation A/A+ offerings; all forms of going public transactions; mergers and acquisitions including both reverse mergers and forward mergers, ; applications to and compliance with the corporate governance requirements of securities exchanges including NASDAQ and NYSE MKT; crowdfunding; corporate; and general contract and business transactions. Moreover, Ms. Anthony and her firm represents both target and acquiring companies in reverse mergers and forward mergers, including the preparation of transaction documents such as merger agreements, share exchange agreements, stock purchase agreements, asset purchase agreements and reorganization agreements. Ms. Anthony’s legal team prepares the necessary documentation and assists in completing the requirements of federal and state securities laws and SROs such as FINRA and DTC for 15c2-11 applications, corporate name changes, reverse and forward splits and changes of domicile. Ms. Anthony is also the author of SecuritiesLawBlog.com, the OTC Market’s top source for industry news, and the producer and host of LawCast.com, the securities law network. In addition to many other major metropolitan areas, the firm currently represents clients in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Atlanta, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Denver, Tampa, Detroit and Dallas.

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« The SEC Has Issued New C&DI Guidance On Regulation A+ House Passes Creating Financial Prosperity For Business And Investors Act »

The SEC Has Issued New C&DI Guidance On Regulation A+

Posted by Securities Attorney Laura Anthony | January 24, 2017 Tags: Form 1-K, Form 1-SA, Form 1-U, Form 1-Z, Section 12(g)

On November 17, 2016, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance issued three new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DI) to provide guidance related to Regulation A/A+. Since the new Regulation A+ came into effect on June 19, 2015, its use has continued to steadily increase. In my practice alone I am noticing a large uptick in broker-dealer-placed Regulation A+ offerings, and recently, institutional investor interest.

Following a discussion on the CD&I guidance, I have included some interesting statistics, practice tips, and thoughts on Regulation A+, and a refresher summary of the Regulation A+ rules.

New CD&I Guidance

In the first of the new CD&I, the SEC has clarified that where a company seeks to qualify an additional class of securities via post-qualification amendment to a previously qualified Form 1-A, Item 4 of Part I, which requires “Summary Information Regarding the Offering and Other Current or Proposed Offerings,” need only include information related to the new class of securities seeking qualification.

In a reminder that Regulation A+ is technically an exemption from the registration requirements under Section 5 of the Securities Act, the SEC confirms that under Item 6 of Part I, requiring disclosure of unregistered securities issued or sold within the prior year, a company must disclose all securities issued or sold pursuant to Regulation A in the prior year.

New question 182.13 clarifies the calculation of a 20% change in the price of the offering to determine the necessity of filing a post-qualification amendment which would be subject to SEC comment and review, versus a post-qualification supplement which would be effective immediately upon filing. In particular, Rule 253(b) provides that a change in price of no more than 20% of the qualified offering price, may be made by supplement and not require an amendment. An amendment is subject to a whole new review and comment period and must be declared qualified by the SEC. A supplement, on the other hand, is simply added to the already qualified Form 1-A, becoming qualified itself upon filing. The 20% variance can be either an increase or decrease in the offering price, but if an increase, cannot result in an offering above the respective thresholds for Tier 1 ($20 million) or Tier 2 ($50 million).

In the third CD&I, the SEC confirms that companies using Form 1-A benefit from Section 71003 of the FAST Act. In particular, the SEC interprets Section 71003 of the FAST Act to allow an emerging growth company (EGC) to omit financial information for historical periods if it reasonably believes that those financial statements will not be required at the time of the qualification of the Form 1-A, provided that the company file a pre-qualification amendment such that the Form 1-A qualified by the SEC contains all required up-to-date financial information. Interestingly, Section 71003 only refers to Forms S-1 and F-1 but the SEC has determined to allow an EGC the same benefit when filing a Form 1-A. Since financial statements for a new period would result in a material amendment to the Form 1-A, potential investors would need to be provided with a copy of such updated amendment prior to accepting funds and completing the sale of securities.

Regulation A+ Statistics; Practice Tip; Further Thoughts

Regulation A+ Statistics

According to The Vintage Group, through November 30, 2016, there were a total of 165 Regulation A+ filings, 16 of which were subsequently withdrawn. Of these, 130 have been qualified by the SEC, with the average time to receive qualification being 101 days. Some companies have filed multiple Regulation A+ offerings. The 130 qualified offerings represent 94 different companies. Thirty eight (38) of the 94 companies completed Tier 1 offerings and 56 completed Tier 2. The average offering size of Tier 1 offerings is $9.5 million and $28.9 million for Tier 2 offerings. As reported by The Vintage Group, the average cost of a Tier 1 offering has been $120,000 and of a Tier 2 offering has been $920,000. I am assuming this includes marketing costs.

Regulation A/A+ – Private or Public Offering?

Although a complete discussion is beyond this blog, the legal nuance that Regulation A/A+ is an “exempt” offering under Section 5 has caused confusion and the need for careful thought by practitioners and the SEC staff alike. So far, it appears that Regulation A/A+ is treated as a public offering in all respects except as related to the applicability of Securities Act Section 11 liability. Section 11 of the Securities Act provides a private cause of action in favor of purchasers of securities, against those involved in filing a false or misleading public offering registration statement. Any purchaser of securities, regardless of whether they bought directly from the company or secondarily in the aftermarket, can sue a company, its underwriters, and experts for damages where a false or misleading registration statement had been filed related to those securities. Regulation A is not considered a public offering for purposes of Section 11 liability.

Securities Act Section 12, which provides a private cause of action by a purchaser of securities directly against the seller of those securities, specifically imposes liability on any person offering or selling securities under Regulation A. The general antifraud provisions under Section 17 of the Securities Act, which apply to private and public offerings, of course apply to Regulation A/A+.

When considering integration, in addition to the discussion in the summary below, the SEC has now confirmed that a Regulation A/A+ offering can rely on Rule 152 such that a completed exempt offering, such as under Rule 506(b), will not integrate with a subsequent Regulation A filing. Under Rule 152, a securities transaction that at the time involves a private offering will not lose that status even if the issuer subsequently makes a public offering. The SEC has also issued guidance that Rule 152 applies to prevent integration between a completed 506(b) offering and a subsequent 506(c) offering, indicating that the important factor in the Rule 152 analysis is the ability to publicly solicit regardless of the filing of a registration statement.

However, Regulation A/A+ is definitely used as a going public transaction and, as such, is very much a public offering. Securities sold in a Regulation A+ offering are not restricted and therefore are available to be used to create a secondary market and trade such as on the OTC Markets or a national exchange.

Tier 2 issuers that have used the S-1 format for their Form 1-A filing will be permitted to file a Form 8-A to register under the Exchange Act and become subject to its reporting requirements. A Form 8-A is a simple registration form used instead of a Form 10 for issuers that have already filed the substantive Form 10 information with the SEC. Upon filing a Form 8-A, the issuer will become subject to the full Exchange Act reporting obligations, and the scaled-down Regulation A+ reporting will automatically be suspended. With the filing of a Form 8-A, the issuer can apply to trade on a national exchange.

This marks a huge change and opportunity for companies that wish to go public directly and raise less than $50 million. An initial or direct public offering on Form S-1 does not preempt state law. By choosing a Tier 2 Regulation A+ offering followed by a Form 8-A, the issuer can achieve the same result – i.e., become a fully reporting trading public company, without the added time and expense of complying with state blue sky laws.

Also, effective July 10, 2016, the OTCQB amended their rules to allow a Tier 2 reporting entity to qualify to apply for and trade on the OTCQB; however, unless the issuer has filed a Form 8-A or Form 10, they will not be considered “subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements” for purposes of benefiting from the shorter 6-month Rule 144 holding period.

Practice Tip

In light of the fact that Regulation A/A+ is technically an exemption from the Section 5 registration requirements, it might not be included in contractual provisions related to registration rights. In particular, the typical language in a piggyback or demand registration right provision creates the possibility that the company could do an offering under Regulation A/A+ and take the position that the shareholder is not entitled to participate under the registration rights provision because it did not do a “registration.” As an advocate of avoiding ambiguity, practitioners should carefully review these contractual provisions and add language to include a Form 1-A under Regulation A/A+ if the intent is to be sure that the shareholder is covered. Likewise, if the intent is to exclude Regulation A/A+ offerings from the registration rights, that exclusion should be added to the language to avoid any dispute.

Further Thoughts

Tier 2 offerings in particular present a much-needed opportunity for smaller companies to go public without the added time and expense of state blue sky compliance but with added investor qualifications. Tier 2 offerings preempt state blue sky laws. To compromise with opponents to the state blue sky preemption, the SEC included investor qualifications for Tier 2 offerings. In particular, Tier 2 offerings have a limitation on the amount of securities non-accredited investors can purchase of no more than 10% of the greater of the investor’s annual income or net worth.

However, as companies continue to learn about Regulation A+, many still do not understand that it is just a legal process with added benefits, such as active advertising and solicitation including through social media. There is no pool of funds to tap into; it is not a line of credit; it is just another process that companies can use to reach out to the investing public and try to convince them to buy stock in, or lend money to, their company.

As such, companies seeking to complete a Regulation A/A+ offering must consider the economics and real-world aspects of the offering. Key to a successful offering are a reasonable valuation and rational use of proceeds. A company should demonstrate value through its financial statements and disclosures and establish that the intended use of proceeds will result in moving the business plan ahead and hopefully create increased value for the shareholders. Investors want to know that their money is being put to the highest and best use to result in return on investment. Repayment of debt or cashing out of series A investors is generally not a saleable use of proceeds. Looking for $50 million for 30% of a pre-revenue start-up just isn’t going to do it! The company has to be prepared to show you, the investor, that it has a plan, management, vision and ability to carry out the business proposition it is selling.

From the investors’ perspective, these are risky investments by nature. Offering materials should be scrutinized. The SEC does not pass on the merits of an offering – only its disclosures. The fact that the registration statement has been qualified by the SEC has no bearing on the risk associated with or quality of the investment. That is for each investor to decide, either alone or with advisors, and requires really reviewing the offering materials and considering the viability of the business proposal. At the end of the day, the success of the business, and therefore the potential return on investment, requires the company to perform – to sell their widgets, keep ahead of the competition, and manage their business and growth successfully.

Refresher: The Final Rules – Summary of Regulation A+

History of Regulation A+; Goals and Purpose

The original Regulation A was adopted in the 1960s as a sort of short-form registration process with the SEC. However, since Regulation A still required a lengthy and expensive state review and qualification process, known as “blue sky registration,” over the years it was used less and less until it was barely used at all. Literally years would go by with only a small handful, if any, Regulation A filings; however, the law remained on the books and the authors and advocates behind the JOBS Act saw potential to use Regulation A to democratize the IPO process by implementing some changes.

Without going down a rabbit hole on “blue sky laws” from a high level, in addition to the federal government, every state has its own set of securities laws and securities regulators. Unless the federal law specifically “pre-empts” or overrules state law, every offer and sale of securities must comply with both the federal and the state law. There are 54 U.S. jurisdictions, including all 50 states and 4 territories, each with separate and different securities laws. Even in states that have identical statutes, the state’s interpretations or focus under the statutes differs greatly. On top of that, each state has a filing fee and a review process that takes time to deal with. It’s difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

Title IV of the JOBS Act that was signed into law on April 5, 2012, set out the framework for the new Regulation A and required the SEC to adopt specific rules to implement the new provisions, which it did. The new rules quickly became known as Regulation A+ and came into effect on June 19, 2015. Regulation A+ has a path to pre-empt state law, and allows for unlimited marketing – as long as certain disclaimers are used, and of course, subject to antifraud laws – you have to be truthful.

As with all of the provisions in the JOBS Act, Regulation A+ was created to provide a less expensive and easier method for smaller companies to access capital. One of the biggest impediments to reaching potential investors has always been strict prohibitions against marketing offerings – whether the offerings were registered with the SEC or under a private placement. Historically, companies wishing to sell securities could only contact people they know and have a business relationship with – which was a small group for anyone. Even the marketing of non-Regulation A registered offerings and IPO’s have been strictly limited. The use of a broker-dealer would be helpful because a company could then access that broker’s client base and contacts, but broker-dealers are not always interested in helping smaller companies raise money.

The JOBS Act made the most dramatic changes to the landscape for the marketing and selling of both private and public offerings since the enactment of the Securities Act of 1933, one of which is the overhaul of Regulation A.

In essence, Regulation A+ has given companies a mechanism and tools to empower them to reach out to the masses in completing an IPO and has concurrently put protections in place to prevent an abuse of the process.

Specifics of Regulation A+ – How Does it Work?

The new Regulation A+ actually divided Regulation A into two offering paths, referred to as Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 1 remains substantially the same as the old pre-JOBS Act Regulation A but with a higher offering limit and allowing more marketing. The old Regulation A was limited to offerings of $5 million or less in any 12-month period. The new Tier 1 has been increased to up to $20 million. Since Tier 1 does not pre-empt state law, it is really only useful for offerings that are limited to one but no more than a small handful of states. Tier 1 does not require the company to include audited financial statements and does not have any ongoing SEC reporting requirements. Tier 1 will likely not be used for a going public transaction.

On June 23, 2015, the SEC updated its Division of Corporation Finance C&DI to provide guidance related to Regulation A/A+ by publishing 11 new questions and answers and deleting 2 from its forms C&DI which are no longer applicable under the new rules. This summary includes that guidance.

Both Tier I and Tier 2 offerings have minimum basic requirements, including issuer eligibility provisions and disclosure requirements. In addition to the affiliate resale restrictions, resales of securities by selling security holders are limited to no more than 30% of a total particular offering for all Regulation A+ offerings. For offerings up to $20 million, an issuer can elect to proceed under either Tier 1 or Tier 2. Both tiers will allow companies to submit draft offering statements for non-public SEC staff review before a public filing, permit continued use of solicitation materials after the filing of the offering statement and use the EDGAR system for filings.

Tier 2 allows a company to file a registration statement with the SEC to raise up $50 million in a 12-month period. Tier 2 pre-empts state blue sky law. The registration statement is a little less lengthy than a traditional IPO registration, the SEC review process is a little shorter, and a company can market in a way that it cannot with a traditional IPO. The trade-off is that Regulation A+ is limited in dollar amount to $50 million, there are specific company eligibility requirements, and there are investor qualifications and associated per-investor investment limits.

Also, the process is not inexpensive. Attorneys’ fees, accounting and audit fees and, of course, marketing expenses all add up. A company needs to be organized and ready before engaging in any offering process, and especially so for a registered offering process. Even though a lot of attorneys, myself included, will provide a flat fee for the process, that flat fee is dependent on certain assumptions, including the level of organization of the company.

Eligibility Requirements

Regulation A+ will be available to companies organized and operating in the United States and Canada. The following issuers will not be eligible for a Regulation A+ offering:

Companies currently subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act;

Investment companies registered or required to be registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, including BDC’s;

Blank check companies, which are companies that have no specific business plan or purpose or whose business plan and purpose is to engage in a merger or acquisition with an unidentified target; however, shell companies are not prohibited, unless such shell company is also a blank check company. A shell company is a company that has no or nominal operations; and either no or nominal assets, assets consisting of cash and cash equivalents; or assets consisting of any amount of cash and cash equivalents and nominal other assets. Accordingly, a start-up business or minimally operating business may utilize Regulation A+;

Issuers seeking to offer and sell asset-backed securities or fractional undivided interests in oil, gas or other mineral rights;

Issuers that have been subject to any order of the SEC under Exchange Act Section 12(j) denying, suspending or revoking registration, entered within the past five years;

Issuers that became subject to Exchange Act reporting requirements, such as through a Tier 2 offering, and did not file required ongoing reports during the preceding two years; and

Issuers that are disqualified under the “bad actor” rules and, in particular, Rule 262 of Regulation A+.

A company will be considered to have its “principal place of business” in the U.S. or Canada for purposes of determination of Regulation A/A+ eligibility if its officers, partners, or managers primarily direct, control and coordinate the company’s activities from the U.S. or Canada, even if the actual operations are located outside those countries.

A company that was once subject to the Exchange Act reporting obligations but suspended such reporting obligations by filing a Form 15 is eligible to utilize Regulation A/A+. A company that voluntarily files reports under the Exchange Act is not “subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements” and therefore is eligible to rely on Regulation A/A+. A wholly owned subsidiary of an Exchange Act reporting company parent is eligible to complete a Regulation A/A+ offering as long as the parent reporting company is not a guarantor or co-issuer of the securities being issued.

Unfortunately, in what is clearly a legislative miss, companies that are already publicly reporting – that is, are already required to file reports with the SEC – are not eligible. OTC Markets has petitioned the SEC to eliminate this eligibility criteria, and pretty well everyone in the industry supports a change here, but for now it remains. For more information on the OTC Markets petition and discussion of the reasons that a change is needed in this regard, see my blog HERE.

Regulation A/A+ can be used for business combination transactions, but is not available for shelf SPAC’s (special purpose acquisition companies).

Eligible Securities

The final rule limits securities that may be issued under Regulation A+ to equity securities, including common and preferred stock and options, warrants and other rights convertible into equity securities, debt securities and debt securities convertible or exchangeable into equity securities, including guarantees. If convertible securities or warrants are offered that may be exchanged or exercised within one year of the offering statement qualification (or at the option of the issuer), the underlying securities must also be qualified and the value of such securities must be included in the aggregate offering value. Accordingly, the underlying securities will be included in determining the offering limits of $20 million and $50 million, respectively.

Asset-backed securities are not allowed to be offered in a Regulation A+ offering. REIT’s and other real estate-based entities may use Regulation A+ and provide information similar to that required by a Form S-11 registration statement.

General Solicitation and Advertising; Solicitation of Interest (“Testing the Waters”)

Other than the investment limits, anyone can invest in a Regulation A+ offering, but of course, they have to know about it first – which brings us to marketing. All Regulation A+ offerings will be allowed to engage in general solicitation and advertising, at least according to the SEC. However, Tier 1 offerings will be required to review and comply with applicable state law related to such solicitation and advertising, including any prohibitions related to same.

Regulation A+ allows for pre-qualification solicitations of interest in an offering, commonly referred to as “testing the waters.” Issuers can use “test the waters” solicitation materials both before and after the initial filing of the offering statement and by any means. A company can use social media, internet websites, television and radio, print advertisements, and anything they can think of. Marketing can be oral or in writing, with the only limitations being certain disclaimers and truth. Although a company can and should be creative in its presentation of information, there are laws in place with serious ramifications requiring truth in the marketing process. Investors should watch for red flags such as clearly unprovable statements of grandeur, obvious hype or any statement that sounds too good to be true – as they are probably are just that.

When using “test the waters” or pre-qualification marketing, a company must specifically state whether a registration statement has been filed and if one has been filed, provide a link to the filing. Also, the company must specifically state that no money is being solicited and that none will be accepted until after the registration statement is qualified with the SEC. Any investor indications of interest during this time are 100% non-binding – on both parties. That is, the potential investor has no obligation to make an investment when or if the offering is qualified with the SEC and the company has no obligation to file a registration statement or if one is already filed, to pursue its qualification. In fact, a company may decide that based on a poor response to its marketing efforts, it will abandon the offering until some future date or forever.

As such, solicitation material used before qualification of the offering circular must contain a legend stating that no money or consideration is being solicited and none will be accepted, no offer to buy securities can be accepted and any offer can be withdrawn before qualification, and a person’s indication of interest does not create a commitment to purchase securities.

For a complete discussion of Regulation A/A+ “test the waters” rules and requirements, see my blog HERE.

All solicitation material must be submitted to the SEC as an Exhibit under Part III of Form 1-A. This is a significant difference from S-1 filers, who are not required to file “test the waters” communications with the SEC.

A company can use Twitter and other social media that limit the number of characters in a communication, to test the waters as long as the company provides a hyperlink to the required disclaimers. In particular, a company can use a hyperlink to satisfy the disclosure and disclaimer requirements in Rule 255 as long as (i) the electronic communication is distributed through a platform that has technological limitations on the number of characters or amount of text that may be included in the communication; (ii) including the entire disclaimer and other required disclosures would exceed the character limit on that particular platform; and (iii) the communication has an active hyperlink to the required disclaimers and disclosures and, where possible, prominently conveys, through introductory language or otherwise, that important or required information is provided through the hyperlink.

Unlike the “testing of the waters” by emerging growth companies that are limited to QIB’s and accredited investors, a Regulation A+ company could reach out to retail and non-accredited investors. After the public filing but before SEC qualification, a company may use its preliminary offering circular to make written offers.

Of course, all “test the waters” materials are subject to the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.

Like registered offerings, ongoing regularly released factual business communications, not including information related to the offering of securities, will be allowed and will not be considered solicitation materials.

Continuous or Delayed Offerings

Continuous or delayed offerings (a form of a shelf offering) will be allowed if (i) they commence within two days of the offering statement qualification date, (ii) are made on a continuous basis, (iii) will continue for a period of in excess of thirty days following the offering statement qualification date, and (iv) at the time of qualification are reasonably expected to be completed within two years of the qualification date.

Issuers that are current in their Tier 2 reporting requirements may make continuous or delayed offerings for up to three years following qualification of the offering statement. Moreover, in the event a new qualification statement is filed for a new Regulation A+ offering, unsold securities from a prior qualification may be included, thus carrying those unsold securities forward for an additional three-year period.

Continuous or delayed offerings are available for all securities qualified in the offering, including securities underlying convertible securities, securities offered by an affiliate or other selling security holder, and securities pledged as collateral.

Additional Tier 2 Requirements; Ability to List on an Exchange

In addition to the basic requirements that will apply to all Regulation A+ offerings, Tier 2 offerings will also require: (i) audited financial statements (though I note that state blue sky laws almost unilaterally require audited financial statements, so this federal distinction may not have a great deal of practical effect); (ii) ongoing reporting requirements including the filing of an annual and semiannual report and periodic reports for current information (new Forms 1-K, 1-SA and 1-U, respectively); and (iii) a limitation on the number of securities non-accredited investors can purchase to no more than 10% of the greater of the investor’s annual income or net worth.

It is the obligation of the issuer to notify investors of these limitations. Issuers may rely on the investors’ representations as to accreditation (no separate verification is required) and investment limits.

This third provision provides additional purchaser suitability standards and the Regulation A+ definition of “qualified purchaser” for purposes of allowing state law pre-emption. During the proposed rule comment process many groups, including certain U.S. senators, were very vocal about the lack of suitability standards of a “qualified purchaser.” Many pushed to align the definition of “qualified purchaser” to the current definition of “accredited investor.” The SEC’s final rules offer a compromise by adding suitability requirements to non-accredited investors to establish quantitative standards for non-accredited investors.

The new rules allow Tier 2 issuers to file a Form 8-A to be filed concurrently with a Form 1-A, to register under the Exchange Act, and the immediate application to a national securities exchange. Where the securities will be listed on a national exchange, the accredited investor limitations will not apply.

Although the ongoing reporting requirements will be substantially similar in form to a current annual report on Form 10-K, the issuer will not be considered to be subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements. Accordingly, such issuer would not qualify for a listing on the OTCQB or national exchange, but would also not be disqualified from engaging in future Regulation A+ offerings.

Tier 2 issuers that have used the S-1 format for their Form 1-A filing will be permitted to file a Form 8-A to register under the Exchange Act and become subject to its reporting requirements. A Form 8-A is a simple (generally 2-page) registration form used instead of a Form 10 for issuers that have already filed the substantive Form 10 information with the SEC (generally through an S-1). The Form 8-A will only be allowed if it is filed concurrently with the Form 1-A. That is, an issuer could not qualify a Form 1-A, wait a year or two, then file a Form 8-A. In that case, they would need to use the longer Form 10.

Upon filing a Form 8-A, the issuer will become subject to the full Exchange Act reporting obligations, and the scaled-down Regulation A+ reporting will automatically be suspended.

Integration

The final rules include a limited-integration safe harbor such that offers and sales under Regulation A+ will not be integrated with prior or subsequent offers or sales that are (i) registered under the Securities Act; (ii) made under compensation plans relying on Rule 701; (iii) made under other employee benefit plans; (iv) made in reliance on Regulation S; (v) made more than six months following the completion of the Regulation A+ offering; or (vi) made in crowdfunding offerings exempt under Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act (Title III crowdfunding, which is not yet legal).

In the absence of a clear exemption from integration, issuers would turn to the five-factor test. In particular, the determination of whether the Regulation A+ offering would integrate with one or more other offerings is a question of fact depending on the particular circumstances at hand. In particular, the following factors need to be considered in determining whether multiple offerings are integrated: (i) are the offerings part of a single plan of financing; (ii) do the offerings involve issuance of the same class of securities; (iii) are the offerings made at or about the same time; (iv) is the same type of consideration to be received; and (v) are the offerings made for the same general purpose.

Offering Statement – General

A company intending to conduct a Regulation A+ offering must file an offering statement with, and have it qualified by, the SEC. The offering statement will be filed with the SEC using the EDGAR database filing system. Prospective investors must be provided with the filed pre-qualified offering statement 48 hours prior to a sale of securities. Once qualified, investors must be provided with the final qualified offering circular. Like current registration statements, Regulation A+ rules provide for an “access equals delivery” model, whereby access to the offering statement via the Internet and EDGAR database will satisfy the delivery requirements.

There are no filing fees for the process. The offering statement will be reviewed much like an S-1 registration statement and declared “qualified” by the SEC with an issuance of a “notice of qualification.” The notice of qualification can be requested or will be issued by the SEC upon clearing comments. The SEC has indicated that reviewers will be assigned filings based on industry group.

Issuers may file offering circular updates after qualification in lieu of post-qualification amendments similar to the filing of a post-effective prospectus for an S-1. To qualify additional securities, a post-qualification amendment must be used.

Offering Statement – Non-Public (Confidential) Submission

As is allowed for emerging growth companies, the rules permit an issuer to submit an offering statement to the SEC on a confidential basis. However, only companies that have not previously sold securities under a Regulation A or a Securities Act registration statement may submit the offering confidentially.

Confidential submissions will allow a Regulation A+ issuer to get the process under way while soliciting interest of investors using the “test the waters” provisions without negative publicity risk if it alters or withdraws the offering before qualification by the SEC. However, the confidential filing, SEC comments, and all amendments must be publicly filed as exhibits to the offering statement at least 21 calendar days before qualification. When an S-1 is filed confidentially, the offering materials need be filed 21 calendar days before effectiveness, but the SEC comment letters and responses are not required to be filed. This, together with the requirement to file “test the waters” communications, are significant increased pre-offering disclosure requirements for Regulation A+ offerings.

Confidential submissions to the SEC are completed by choosing a “confidential” setting in the EDGAR system. To satisfy the requirement to publicly file the previous confidential information, the company can file all prior confidential information as an exhibit to its non-confidential filing, or change the setting in the EDGAR system on its prior filings, from “confidential” to “public.” In the event the company chooses to change its EDGAR setting to “public,” it would not have to re-file all prior confidential material as an exhibit to a new filing.

If a company wants to keep certain information confidential, even after the required time to make such information public, it will need to submit two confidential requests, one as part of the registration review process and one when prior confidential filings are made public. During the confidential Form 1-A review process, the company should submit a request under Rule 83 in the same manner it would during a typical review of a registered offering. Once the company is required to make the prior filings “public” (21 days prior to qualification), the company would make a new request for confidential treatment under Rule 406 in the same manner other confidential treatment requests are submitted. In particular, for a confidential treatment request under Rules 83 and 406, a company must submit a redacted version of the document via EDGAR with the appropriate legend indicating that confidential treatment has been requested. Concurrently, the company must submit a full, unredacted paper version of the document to the SEC using the ordinary confidential treatment procedure (such filings are submitted via a designated fax line to a designated person to maintain confidentiality).

Offering Statement – Form and Content

The rules require use of new modified Form 1-A. Form 1-A consists of three parts: Part I – Notification, Part II – Offering Circular, and Part III – Exhibits. Part I calls for certain basic information about the issuer and the offering, and is primarily designed to confirm and determine eligibility for the use of the Form and a Regulation A offering in general. Part I will include issuer information; issuer eligibility; application of the bad actor disqualification and disclosure; jurisdictions in which securities are to be offered; and unregistered securities issued or sold within one year.

Part II is the offering circular and is similar to the prospectus in a registration statement. Part II requires disclosure of basic information about the issuer and the offering; material risks; dilution; plan of distribution; use of proceeds; description of the business operations; description of physical properties; discussion of financial condition and results of operations (MD&A); identification of and disclosure about directors, executives and key employees; executive compensation; beneficial security ownership information; related party transactions; description of offered securities; and two years of financial information.

The required information in Part 2 of Form 1-A is scaled down from the requirements in Regulation S-K applicable to Form S-1. Issuers can complete Part 2 by either following the Form 1-A disclosure format or by including the information required by Part I of Form S-1 or Form S-11 as applicable. Note that only issuers that elect to use the S-1 or S-11 format will be able to subsequently file an 8-A to register and become subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements.

Moreover, issuers that had previously completed a Regulation A offering and had thereafter been subject to and filed reports with the SEC under Tier 2 could incorporate by reference from these reports in future Regulation A offering circulars.

Form 1-A requires two years of financial information. All financial statements for Regulation A offerings must be prepared in accordance with GAAP. Financial statements of a Tier 1 issuer are not required to be audited unless the issuer has obtained an audit for other purposes. Audited financial statements are required for Tier 2 issuers. Audit firms for Tier 2 issuers must be independent and PCAOB-registered. An offering statement cannot be qualified if the date of the balance sheet is more than nine months prior to the date of qualification.

A recently created entity may choose to provide a balance sheet as of its inception date as long as that inception date is within nine months before the date of filing or qualification and the date of filing or qualification is not more than three months after the entity reached its first annual balance sheet date. The date of the most recent balance sheet determines which fiscal years, or period since existence for recently created entities, the statements of comprehensive income, cash flows and changes in stockholders’ equity must cover. When the balance sheet is dated as of inception, the statements of comprehensive income, cash flows and changes in stockholders’ equity will not be applicable.

Part III requires an exhibits index and a description of exhibits required to be filed as part of the offering statement.

Offering Price

All Regulation A+ offerings must be at a fixed price. That is, no offerings may be made “at the market” or for other than a fixed price.

Ongoing Reporting

Both Tier I and Tier 2 issuers must file summary information after the termination or completion of a Regulation A+ offering. A Tier I company will need to file certain information about the Regulation A offering, including information on sales and the termination of sales, on a new Form 1-Z exit report, no later than 30 calendar days after termination or completion of the offering. Tier I issuers will not have any ongoing reporting requirements.

Tier 2 companies are also required to file certain offering termination information and would have the choice of using Form 1-Z or including the information in their first annual report on new Form 1-K. In addition to the offering summary information, Tier 2 issuers are required to submit ongoing reports including: an annual report on Form 1-K, semiannual reports on Form 1-SA, current event reports on Form 1-U and notice of suspension of ongoing reporting obligations on Form 1-Z (all filed electronically on EDGAR).

The ongoing reporting for Tier 2 companies is less demanding than the reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act. In particular, there are fewer 1-K items and only the semiannual 1-SA (rather than the quarterly 10-Q) and fewer events triggering Form 1-U (compared to Form 8-K). The SEC anticipates that companies would use their Regulation A+ offering circular as the groundwork for the ongoing reports, and they may incorporate by reference text from previous filings.

The annual Form 1-K must be filed within 120 calendar days of fiscal year-end. The semiannual Form 1-SA must be filed within 90 calendar days after the end of the semiannual period. The current report on Form 1-U must be filed within 4 business days of the triggering event. Successor issuers, such as following a merger, must continue to file the ongoing reports.

The rules also provide for a suspension of reporting obligations for a Regulation A+ issuer that desires to suspend or terminate its reporting requirements. Termination is accomplished by filing a Form 1-Z and requires that a company be current over stated periods in its reporting, have fewer than 300 shareholders of record, and have no ongoing offers or sales in reliance on a Regulation A+ offering statement. Of course, a company may file a Form 10 to become subject to the full Exchange Act reporting requirements.

The ongoing reports will qualify as the type of information a market maker would need to support the filing of a 15c2-11 application. Accordingly, an issuer that completes a Tier 2 offering could proceed to engage a market maker to file a 15c2-11 application and trade on the OTC Pink tier of the OTC Markets. Such issuer, however, would not be deemed to be “subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements” to support a listing on the OTCQB or OTCQX levels of the OTC Markets.

Freely Tradable Securities

Securities issued to non-affiliates in a Regulation A+ offering will be freely tradable. Securities issued to affiliates in a Regulation A+ offering will be subject to the affiliate resale restrictions in Rule 144, except for a holding period. The same resale restrictions for affiliates and non-affiliates apply to securities registered in a Form S-1.

However, since neither Tier 1 nor Tier 2 Regulation A+ issuers are subject to the SEC reporting requirements, the shareholders of issuers would not be able to rely on Rule 144 for prior shell companies. Moreover, the Tier 2 reports do not constitute reasonably current public information for the support of the use of Rule 144 for affiliates in the future.

Treatment under Section 12(g)

Exchange Act Section 12(g) requires that an issuer with total assets exceeding $10,000,000 and a class of equity securities held of record by either 2,000 persons or 500 persons who are not accredited register with the SEC, generally on Form 10, and thereafter be subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act.

The new Regulation A+ exempts securities in a Tier 2 offering from the Section 12(g) registration requirements if the issuer meets all of the following conditions:

The issuer utilizes an SEC-registered transfer agent. Such transfer agent must be engaged at the time the company is relying on the exemption from Exchange Act registration;

The issuer remains subject to the Tier 2 reporting obligations;

The issuer is current in its Tier 2 reporting obligations, including the filing of an annual and semiannual report; and

The issuer has a public float of less than $75 million as of the last business day of its most recently completed semiannual period or, if no public float, had annual revenues of less than $50 million as of its most recently completed fiscal year-end.

Moreover, even if a Tier 2 issuer is not eligible for the Section 12(g) registration exemption as set forth above, that issuer will have a two-year transition period prior to being required to having to register under the Exchange Act, as long as during that two-year period, the issuer continues to file all of its ongoing Regulation A+ reports in a timely manner with the SEC.

State Law Pre-emption

Tier I offerings do not pre-empt state law and remain subject to state blue sky qualification. The SEC, in its press release, encouraged issuers to utilize the NASAA-coordinated review program for Tier I blue sky compliance. For a brief discussion on the NASAA-coordinated review program, see my blog HERE. However, in practice, I do not think this program is being utilized; rather, when Tier 1 is being used, it is limited to just one or a very small number of states and the company is completing the blue sky process independently.

Tier 2 offerings are not subject to state law review or qualification – i.e., state law is pre-empted. State securities registration and exemption requirements are only pre-empted as to the Tier 2 offering and securities purchased pursuant to the qualified Tier 2 for 1-A offering circular. Subsequent resales of such securities are not pre-empted.

The text of Title IV of the JOBS Act provides, among other items, a provision that certain Regulation A securities should be treated as covered securities for purposes of the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (NSMIA). Federally covered securities are exempt from state registration and overview. Regulation A provides that “(b) Treatment as covered securities for purposes of NSMIA… Section 18(b)(4) of the Securities Act of 1933… is further amended by inserting… (D) a rule or regulation adopted pursuant to section 3(b)(2) and such security is (i) offered or sold on a national securities exchange; or (ii) offered or sold to a qualified purchaser, as defined by the Commission pursuant to paragraph (3) with respect to that purchase or sale.” For a discussion on the NSMIA, see my blogs HERE and HERE.

The definition of “qualified purchaser” became the subject of debate and contention during the comment process associated with the initially issued Regulation A+ proposed rules. In a compromise, the SEC has imposed a limit on Tier 2 offerings such that the amount of securities non-accredited investors can purchase is to be no more than 10% of the greater of the investor’s annual income or net worth. In light of this investor suitability limitation, the SEC has then defined a “qualified purchaser” as any purchaser in a Tier 2 offering.

Federally covered securities, including Tier 2 offered securities, are still subject to state antifraud provisions, and states may require certain notice filings. In addition, as with any covered securities, states maintain the authority to investigate and prosecute fraudulent securities transactions.

Broker-dealer Placement

Broker-dealers acting as placement or marketing agent will be required to comply with FINRA Rule 5110 regarding filing of underwriting compensation, for a Regulation A+ offering.

The Author

Laura Anthony, Esq.
Founding Partner
Legal & Compliance, LLC
Corporate, Securities and Going Public Attorneys
LAnthony@LegalAndCompliance.com

Contact Legal & Compliance LLC. Technical inquiries are always encouraged.

Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter.

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« SEC Issues New C&DI Clarifying The Use Of Form S-3 By Smaller Reporting Companies; The Baby Shelf Rule SEC Issues New C&DI On Abbreviated Debt Tender And Debt Exchange Offers »

SEC Issues New C&DI Clarifying The Use Of Form S-3 By Smaller Reporting Companies; The Baby Shelf Rule

Posted by Securities Attorney Laura Anthony | January 17, 2017

The SEC has been issuing a slew of new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DI”) on numerous topics in the past few months. I will cover each of these new C&DI in a series of blogs starting with one C&DI that clarifies the availability of Form S-3 for the registration of securities by companies with a public float of less than $75 million, known as the “baby shelf rule.”

The Baby Shelf Rule

Among other requirements, to qualify to use an S-3 registration statement a company must have filed all Exchange Act reports in a timely manner, including Form 8-K, within the prior 12 months and trade on a national exchange. An S-3 also contains certain limitations on the value of securities that can be offered. Companies that have an aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of $75 million or more, may offer the full amount of securities under an S-3 registration. For companies that have an aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of less than $75 million, Instruction 1.B.6(a) limits the amount that the company can offer to up to one-third of that market value in any trailing 12-month period. This one-third limitation is referred to as the “baby shelf rule.”

To calculate the non-affiliate float for purposes of S-3 eligibility, a company may look back 60 days and select the highest of the last sales prices or the average of the bid and ask prices on the principal exchange. The registration capacity for a baby shelf is measured immediately prior to the offering and re-measured on a rolling basis in connection with subsequent takedowns. The availability for a particular takedown is measured as the current allowable offering amount less any amounts actually sold under the same S-3 in prior takedowns. Accordingly, the available offering amount will increase as a company’s stock price increases, and decrease as a stock price decreases.

New C&DI

On November 2, 2016, the SEC issued a new C&DI clarifying the calculation of the one-third limitation under the baby shelf rule. In particular, some companies were effecting an S-3 shelf takedown with an investor while simultaneously completing a private placement with the same investor and registering the private placement securities via a new resale S-3 filing. Although the shelf takedown was a primary direct issuance from the company and the resale registration filed on behalf of the selling shareholder, the combined effect was the use of S-3 for an amount of securities in excess of the $75 million limitation.

This workaround had become somewhat commonplace until the SEC issued the new C&DI on November 2, 2016 clarifying that this will no longer be allowed. The new C&DI provides in total:

Question: An issuer with less than $75 million in public float is eligible to use Form S-3 for a primary offering in reliance on Instruction I.B.6, which permits it to sell no more than one-third of its public float within a 12-month period. May it sell securities to the same investor(s), with a portion coming from a takedown from its shelf registration statement for which it is relying on Instruction I.B.6 and a portion coming from a separate private placement that it concurrently registers for resale on a separate Form S-3 in reliance on Instruction I.B.3, if the aggregate number of shares sold exceeds the Instruction I.B.6 limitation that would be available to the issuer at that time?

Answer: No. Because we believe that this offering structure evades the offering size limitations of Instruction I.B.6, the securities registered for resale on Form S-3 should be counted against the issuer’s available capacity under Instruction I.B.6. Accordingly, an issuer may not rely on Instruction I.B.3 to register the resale of the balance of the securities on Form S-3 unless it has sufficient capacity under Instruction I.B.6 to issue that amount of securities at the time of filing the resale registration statement. If it does not, it would need to either register the resale on Form S-1 or wait until it has sufficient capacity under that instruction to register the resale on Form S-3.

Although the SEC has made it clear that the private placement and shelf takedown shares will both count towards the $75 million baby shelf limit, a company can still conduct concurrent shelf takedowns and private placements with the same investor. In such case the investor can either hold the private placement shares for the applicable Rule 144 holding period, or the shares can be registered for resale on Form S-1.

The Author

Laura Anthony, Esq.
Founding Partner
Legal & Compliance, LLC
Corporate, Securities and Going Public Attorneys
LAnthony@LegalAndCompliance.com

Contact Legal & Compliance LLC. Technical inquiries are always encouraged.

Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter.

Download our mobile app at iTunes.

« SEC Issues Guidance On Integration With A 506(c) Offering The SEC Has Issued New C&DI Guidance On Regulation A+ »

SEC Issues Guidance On Integration With A 506(c) Offering

Posted by Securities Attorney Laura Anthony | January 10, 2017 Tags: 506 C offering, 506(c) Offering, Integration With A 506(c) Offering, SEC

ABA Journal’s 10th Annual Blawg 100

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On November 17, 2016, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance issued a new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DI) related to the integration of a completed 506(b) offering with a new 506(c) offering. The new C&DI confirms that 506(c) offering will not integrate with a previously completed 506(b) offering.

Effective September, 2013, the SEC adopted final rules eliminating the prohibition against general solicitation and advertising in Rules 506 and 144A offerings as required by Title II of the JOBS Act. The enactment of new 506(c) resulting in the elimination of the prohibition against general solicitation and advertising in private offerings to accredited investors has been a slow but sure success. Trailblazers such as startenging.com, realtymogul.com, circleup.com, wefunder.com and seedinvest.com proved that the model can work, and the rest of the capital marketplace has taken notice. Recently, more established broker-dealers have begun their foray into the 506(c) marketplace with accredited investor-only crowdfunding websites accompanied by the use of marketing and solicitation to draw investors.

The historical Rule 506 was renumbered to Rule 506(b) and issuers have the option of completing offerings under either Rule 506(b) or 506(c). Rule 506(b) allows offers and sales to an unlimited number of accredited investors and up to 35 unaccredited investors, provided however that if any unaccredited investors are included in the offering, certain delineated disclosures, including an audited balance sheet and financial statements, are provided to potential investors. Rule 506(b) prohibits the use of any general solicitation or advertising in association with the offering.

The new Rule 506(c) requires that all sales be strictly made to accredited investors and adds a burden of verifying such accredited status to the issuing company. In a 506(c) offering, it is not enough for the investor to check a box confirming that they are accredited, as it is with a 506(b) offering. Accordingly the issue of integration, or when the 506(c) offering could be deemed to taint the previously completed 506(b) offering, is extremely important for companies utilizing these types of corporate finance transactions.

Integration and the New C&DI

In general the concept of integration is whether two offerings integrate such that either offering fails to comply with the exemption or registration rules being relied upon. The new C&DI effectively treats a 506(c) offering as a public offering and provides in total:

Question: An issuer has been conducting a private offering in which it has made offers and sales in reliance on Rule 506(b). Less than six months after the most recent sale in that offering, the issuer decides to generally solicit investors in reliance on Rule 506(c). Are the factors listed in the Note to Rule 502(a) the sole means by which the issuer determines whether all of the offers and sales constitute a single offering?

Answer: No. Under Securities Act Rule 152, a securities transaction that at the time involves a private offering will not lose that status even if the issuer subsequently decides to make a public offering. Therefore, we believe under these circumstances that offers and sales of securities made in reliance on Rule 506(b) prior to the general solicitation would not be integrated with subsequent offers and sales of securities pursuant to Rule 506(c). So long as all of the applicable requirements of Rule 506(b) were met for offers and sales that occurred prior to the general solicitation, they would be exempt from registration and the issuer would be able to make offers and sales pursuant to Rule 506(c). Of course, the issuer would have to then satisfy all of the applicable requirements of Rule 506(c) for the subsequent offers and sales, including that it take reasonable steps to verify the accredited investor status of all subsequent purchasers.

Rule 502(a) of Regulation D provides a five-factor test to determine whether separate offerings should be integrated (and thus whether an exemption is available for the private offering and there have been no violations of Section 5 for the registered offering). The five factors are: (1) whether the offerings are part of a single plan of financing; (2) whether the offerings involve issuance of the same class of security; (3) whether the offerings are made at or about the same time; (4) whether the same type of consideration is to be received; and (5) whether the offerings are for the same general purpose. The five-factor test is subjective, and the SEC staff has not provided definitive guidance as to what weight to give to the various factors or, indeed, how many of them have to be met.

Rule 502(a) also provides for a six-month safe harbor wherein multiple private offerings that are conducted at least six (6) months apart will not be integrated. A private offering that is conducted at least six (6) months before or after a registered or exempt public offering will not be integrated with the public offering.

Rule 152 is a safe harbor for issuers undertaking a registered public offering after conducting a private offering. As interpreted by the SEC, a completed private offering will not be integrated with a subsequently commenced registered public offering. Clearly as a result of the ability to publicly solicit, the SEC is treating a Rule 506(c) offering as a public offering in making an integration analysis.

Brief Summary of 506(c)

Effective September 23, 2013, the SEC adopted final rules eliminating the prohibition against general solicitation and advertising in Rules 506 and 144A offerings as required by Title II of the JOBS Act. For a complete discussion of the final rules, please see my blog HERE. For a discussion on the use of general solicitation and advertising, including when a solicitation may not be considered “general solicitation” for purposes of the 506 Rules, see my blog HERE.

Title II of the JOBS Act required the SEC to amend Rule 506 of Regulation D to permit general solicitation and advertising in offerings under Rule 506, provided that all purchasers of the securities are accredited investors. The JOBS Act required that the rules necessitate that the issuer take reasonable steps to verify that purchasers of the securities are accredited investors using such methods as determined by the SEC. Rule 506 is a safe harbor promulgated under Section 4(a)(2) (formerly Section 4(2)) of the Securities Act of 1933, exempting transactions by an issuer not involving a public offering. In a Rule 506 offering, an issuer can sell an unlimited amount of securities to accredited investors and up to 35 unaccredited sophisticated investors. The standard to determine whether an investor is accredited has historically been the reasonable belief of the issuer.

Rule 506(c) permits the use of general solicitation and advertising to offer and sell securities under Rule 506, provided that the following conditions are met:

the issuer takes reasonable steps to verify that the purchasers are accredited;
all purchasers of securities must be accredited investors, either because they come within one of the categories in the definition of accredited investor, or the issuer reasonably believes that they do, at the time of the sale; and
all terms and conditions of Rule 501 and Rules 502(a) and (d) must be satisfied.

Rule 506(c) includes a non-exclusive list of methods that issuers may use to verify that investors are accredited. An issuer that does not wish to engage in general solicitation and advertising can rely on the old Rule 506 and offer and sell to up to 35 unaccredited sophisticated investors. An issuer opting to rely on the old Rule 506 does not have to take any additional steps to verify that a purchaser is accredited.

The Author

Laura Anthony, Esq.
Founding Partner
Legal & Compliance, LLC
Corporate, Securities and Going Public Attorneys
LAnthony@LegalAndCompliance.com

Contact Legal & Compliance LLC. Technical inquiries are always encouraged.

Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter.

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« SEC Issues Report On Regulation S-K SEC Issues New C&DI Clarifying The Use Of Form S-3 By Smaller Reporting Companies; The Baby Shelf Rule »

SEC Issues Report On Regulation S-K

Posted by Securities Attorney Laura Anthony | January 3, 2017 Tags: SEC Issues Report On Regulation S-K

As required by Section 72003 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (the “FAST Act”), on November 23, 2016, the SEC issued a Report on Modernization and Simplification of Regulation S-K (the “Report”) including detailed recommendations for changes.

The Report continues the ongoing review and proposed revisions to Regulations S-K and S-X as related to reports and registration statements filed under the Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”). Regulation S-K, as amended over the years, was adopted as part of a uniform disclosure initiative to provide a single regulatory source related to non-financial statement disclosures and information required to be included in registration statements and reports filed under the Exchange Act and the Securities Act. Regulation S-X contains specific financial statement preparation and disclosure requirements.

The Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative began in December 2013, when the SEC, as required by the JOBS Act, issued its first report on the Regulation S-K disclosure requirements. The Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative is intended to evaluate the rules related to disclosure, how information is presented and disclosed and how technology can be utilized in the process and to implement changes to improve the current disclosure-related rules and regulations.

Since the initiative began, the SEC has been issuing reports, an in-depth concept release, and proposed rule changes as part of the Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative. However, as of the date of this blog, none of the proposed changes have been implemented. I have included a summary of the various proposals and SEC publications at the end of this blog. I suspect that following the change in administration, and re-staffing of the SEC, including the as of yet to be announced replacements for SEC Chair Mary Jo White, Division of Corporation Finance Director Keith Higgins, and Trading and Markets Director Stephen Luparello, there will be significant progress in many of the outstanding proposals as well as new and different proposals on the subject. It is my belief that the new leadership will take a pro-business viewpoint and that we will see that flow through to the disclosure requirements, especially as it impacts smaller reporting companies and emerging-growth companies.

The Report

The FAST Act, passed in December 2015, contains two sections requiring the SEC to modernize and simplify the requirements in Regulation S-K. Section 72002 requires the SEC to amend Regulation S-K to “further scale or eliminate requirements… to reduce the burden on emerging growth companies, accelerated filers, smaller reporting companies, and other smaller issuers, while still providing all material information to investors.” In addition, the SEC was directed to “eliminate provisions… that are duplicative, overlapping, outdated or unnecessary.” In accordance with that requirement, On July 13, 2016, the SEC issued proposed rule change on Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X to amend disclosures that are redundant, duplicative, overlapping, outdated or superseded. The S-K and S-X Amendments also seek comment on certain disclosure requirements that overlap with U.S. GAAP and possible recommendations to FASB, the regulatory body that drafts and implements GAAP, for conforming changes. See my blog on the proposed rule change HERE. The proposal remains pending.

Section 72003 required the SEC to conduct a study on Regulation S-K and, in that process, to consult with the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee (the “IAC”) and the Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies (the “ACSEC”) and then to issue a report on the study findings, resulting in the Report issued on November 23, 2016. As required, the SEC consulted with the IAC and ACSEC as part of the process.

Section 72003 specifically requires that the Report include: (i) the finding made in the required study; (ii) specific and detailed recommendations on modernizing and simplifying the requirements in Regulation S-K in a manner that reduces the costs and burdens on companies while still providing all material information; and (iii) specific and detailed recommendations on ways to improve the readability and navigability of disclosure documents and to reduce repetition and immaterial information.

The SEC Report includes a high level review of the rule proposals issued by the SEC specifically in response to their mandate under the FAST Act. In particular, the proposed rule changes related to mining companies, proposed amendment to the definition of a smaller reporting company, the July 13, 2016 proposed amendments to Regulation S-K and the August 31, 2016 proposed amendment to Item 601 were all required by the FAST Act. In the Further Reading section below, I have included links to my blogs on these proposals.

Specific SEC Staff Recommendations

A. Item 10(d) Related to Incorporation by Reference

The SEC staff recommends revising Item 10(d) to permit incorporation by reference to documents that have been filed with the SEC for at least 5 years, but require a detailed description of and hyperlink to such documents. Currently the rule specifically prohibits incorporation of documents that have been filed more than five years prior.

The SEC staff recommends allowing incorporation by reference to financial statement footnotes where such disclosures satisfy other Regulation S-K item requirements. For example, disclosures related to related party transactions (Item 404), selected financial data (Item 301) and off-balance-sheet arrangements (Item 303) are all repeated in financial statement footnotes. The SEC staff notes that allowing incorporation by reference from financial statements to other documents would increase audit costs and burdens and accordingly specifically recommends disallowing outside incorporation from the financial statements.

In addition, currently incorporation-by-reference rules are not consistent. For example, Rule 411 related to Securities Act registration statements has different requirements than Rule 12b-23 related to Exchange Act registration statements. Different forms also have different rules and requirements. The SEC recommends consolidating all the incorporation-by-reference rules into Item 10(d) and that such rules apply to all filings under the both the Securities Act and Exchange Act.

B. Business Information

The SEC staff recommends revising Item 102 to clarify that a description of property is only required to the extent that physical properties are material to the company’s business. Currently, Item 102 requires companies to “state briefly the location and general character of the principal plants, mines and other materially important physical properties of the registrant and its subsidiaries.” The SEC could also streamline the disclosure requirement by adding a description of material property to the Item 101 business description as opposed to leaving it as a stand-alone item.

C. Management Discussion and Analysis

The SEC staff recommends revising Item 303 to clarify that a company need only provide a period-to-period comparison for the two most recent years and that it may hyperlink to the prior year’s annual report for prior comparisons. The SEC staff also recommends considering requiring a discussion of material changes and known trends and uncertainties that impacted those changes, as opposed to the current granular line-item comparisons. In that regard, the MD&A focus would shift to longer-term trends and how those trends impacted the reported financial statements and may impact future results.

The SEC staff also recommends eliminating the requirement to provide a tabular disclosure of contractual obligations. I note that smaller reporting companies are not required to provide this disclosure. The staff recommends that instead of the table, a company should provide a hyperlink to financial statement footnotes and a liquidity discussion that describes material changes to contractual obligations and the ability to pay and perform such obligations.

D. Management, Security Holders, Corporate Governance

The SEC staff recommends clarifying the rules as to when and where the business experience of executive officers is required in proxy statements. In particular, the rules should clarify that the information is not required in a proxy statement when it is otherwise contained in a Form 10-K.

The SEC staff recommends allowing a company to simply review EDGAR filings to determine compliance with Section 16. Currently a Section 16 filer is required to also furnish a company with their filings. Similarly, the staff recommends eliminating the Section 16 disclosure requirement altogether where there are no delinquencies to report.

The SEC staff makes multiple recommendations to clarify and clean up certain corporate governance reporting requirements including further aligning the smaller reporting company and emerging-growth company requirements.

E.Registration Statements

As related to registration statements, the SEC staff makes several recommendations to clean up redundancies, allow for hyperlinks, and add consistencies to the requirements related to registration statements. The following is a brief description of some of those recommendations.

The SEC staff recommends eliminating the provision of Item 501 related to the name of the company. In particular, the SEC rules have provisions related to the use of a name that is the same as a “well-known” company or could be misleading. The concept is already covered by intellectual property laws and it is not necessary for the SEC to have a specific regulation addressing same.

The staff recommends eliminating the requirement to provide an explanation of the method of determining the price of an offering in a registration statement from the cover page and allowing a hyperlink to the same disclosure elsewhere in the document.

The staff recommends adding a disclosure to specify if the company already trades on the OTC Markets and to provide the trading symbol. Currently the disclosure is only required for exchange-traded companies. In practice, OTC-traded companies already do this.

The staff recommends reducing the length of the “subject to completion” disclaimer on the front page by eliminating reference to state law where it is not applicable, such as when the offering pre-empts state law under the National Securities Market Improvement Act (NSMIA).

The staff recommends eliminating several of the Item 512 undertakings provisions as duplicative, redundant or obsolete.

F. Exhibits

The staff recommends adding a description of the company’s outstanding securities as an exhibit to Form 10-K. The staff also recommends adding the requirement that a subsidiaries legal entity identifier number (LEI) be included in the subsidiary list exhibit.

The staff recommends permitting the omission of attachments and schedules from exhibits unless the schedule or attachment has material information that is not disclosed elsewhere.

G. Manner of Delivery Requirements

The staff recommends adding XBRL tagging to the cover page of reports. The staff also recommends allowing the use of hyperlinks to websites when a disclosure of such website URL is required.

Further Reading

The following is a recap of the ongoing Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative-related reports and proposals. The Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative began in December 2013, when the SEC, as required by the JOBS Act, issued its first report on the Regulation S-K disclosure requirements. The Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative is intended to evaluate the rules related to disclosure, how information is presented and disclosed and how technology can be utilized in the process and to implement changes to improve the current disclosure-related rules and regulations.

On August 31, 2016, the SEC issued proposed amendments to Item 601 of Regulation S-K to require hyperlinks to exhibits in filings made with the SEC. The proposed amendments would require any company filing registration statements or reports with the SEC to include a hyperlink to all exhibits listed on the exhibit list. In addition, because ASCII cannot support hyperlinks, the proposed amendment would also require that all exhibits be filed in HTML format. See my blog HERE on the Item 601 proposed changes. The proposal remains pending.

On August 25, 2016, the SEC requested public comment on possible changes to the disclosure requirements in Subpart 400 of Regulation S-K. Subpart 400 encompasses disclosures related to management, certain security holders and corporate governance. See my blog on the request for comment HERE. The changes remain pending.

On July 13, 2016, the SEC issued a proposed rule change on Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X to amend disclosures that are redundant, duplicative, overlapping, outdated or superseded (S-K and S-X Amendments). See my blog on the proposed rule change HERE. The proposal remains pending.

On June 27, 2016, the SEC issued proposed amendments to the definition of “Small Reporting Company” (see my blog HERE). The SEC also previously issued a release related to disclosure requirements for entities other than the reporting company itself, including subsidiaries, acquired businesses, issuers of guaranteed securities and affiliates. See my blog HERE.

On June 16, 2016, the SEC proposed revisions to Item 102 of Regulation S-K and Industry Guide 7 related to the property disclosure requirements for mining companies. The revisions are intended to modernize the disclosure obligations to be better aligned with current industry and global regulatory practices. The SEC also proposed rescinding Industry Guide 7 and including the substantive provisions in a new subpart in Regulation S-K.

On April 15, 2016, the SEC issued a concept release and request for public comment on sweeping changes to certain business and financial disclosure requirements. See my two-part blog on the S-K Concept Release HERE and HERE.

In early December 2015 the FAST Act was passed into law. The FAST Act requires the SEC to adopt or amend rules to: (i) allow issuers to include a summary page to Form 10-K; and (ii) scale or eliminate duplicative, antiquated or unnecessary requirements for emerging-growth companies, accelerated filers, smaller reporting companies and other smaller issuers in Regulation S-K. The current Regulation S-K and S-X Amendments are part of this initiative. In addition, the SEC is required to conduct a study within one year on all Regulation S-K disclosure requirements to determine how best to amend and modernize the rules to reduce costs and burdens while still providing all material information. See my blog HERE.

As part of the Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative, in September 2015 the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies met and finalized its recommendation to the SEC regarding changes to the disclosure requirements for smaller publicly traded companies. For more information on that topic and for a discussion of the Reporting Requirements in general, see my blog HERE.

In March 2015 the American Bar Association submitted its second comment letter to the SEC making recommendations for changes to Regulation S-K. For more information on that topic, see my blog HERE.

The Author

Laura Anthony, Esq.
Founding Partner
Legal & Compliance, LLC
Corporate, Securities and Going Public Attorneys
LAnthony@LegalAndCompliance.com

Contact Legal & Compliance LLC. Technical inquiries are always encouraged.

Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter.

Download our mobile app at iTunes.

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