On March 26, 2020, the SEC announced that it is providing additional temporary relief to market participants in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief covers (i) parties needing to file a Form ID to gain access to the EDGAR system and (ii) certain company filing obligations under Regulation A and Regulation Crowdfunding.
Temporary Relief from Form ID Notarization Requirement
To use the SEC’s EDGAR system to make required filings,… More
Following the SEC’s announcement on March 4, 2020 that it was providing conditional relief to public companies affected by COVID-19 for their filing obligations under the federal securities laws, many companies have availed themselves of this relief. 
In addition, several companies have already identified risks related to COVID-19 that are material to their businesses and investors, often noting that the full impact of the global pandemic remains uncertain.… More
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced recently that it is adopting new Rule 163B to allow all issuers to “Test-the-Waters” with potential investors whom they reasonably believe are Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) and/or Institutional Accredited Investors (IAIs). In 2012, the JOBS Act allowed Emerging Growth Companies (EGCs) to engage in Testing-the-Waters discussions, but companies either too large or too seasoned to qualify as EGCs did not receive this benefit.… More
Just hours after our recent blog post regarding the need to use the traditional process for CTR extensions, the SEC announced the adoption of a new streamlined process for CTR extensions.
This streamlined process requires the submission of a one-page application by which a company can affirm that the most recently considered CTR application continues to be true, complete and accurate regarding the information for which the company continues to seek confidential treatment. … More
A confidential treatment order for information redacted from an exhibit is about to expire. Under SEC rules that took effect last week (see our prior blog posts here and here), public companies can now redact the same type of information without prior SEC review, so the company doesn’t have to do anything, right?
Wrong. The SEC has confirmed that its new rules for the redaction of confidential information from certain exhibits do not automatically extend orders for confidential treatment granted under the traditional application process.… More
The SEC staff has issued supplemental guidance regarding its new rules for the redaction of confidential information from certain exhibits, which take effect today. See our blog post here for more detail on the new rules.
Consistent with prior practice, a company redacting information from a material contract must:
On March 20, 2019, the SEC amended its disclosure requirements to ease reporting burdens for most public companies. While no individual change is particularly noteworthy, the aggregate impact of the changes should generally simplify the reporting process. A few changes will require modest additional disclosures. The most significant changes are:
Last week, the SEC staff published new compliance and disclosure interpretations clarifying some of the inner workings of exemptions for certain cross-border business combinations, exchange offers and rights offerings. These exemptions are available for specified transactions involving foreign companies whose US ownership falls below 40% or 10% of total ownership, with the latter group being afforded significantly greater relief. When the SEC originally adopting these exemptions, it sought to induce parties to include US investors in transactions where they would typically be excluded in order to avoid the burdens of complying with US securities laws.… More
Yesterday the SEC staff issued CD&I 105.09, which clarifies the date by which issuers must comply with the new requirement to present changes in stockholders’ equity in their interim financial statements. Initially, there was concern that the requirement would be effective shortly before many companies would ordinarily file their Forms 10-Q for the quarter ending on September 30. The new CD&I clarifies that the staff will not object if issuers comply with the new requirement for the first quarter that begins after the effective date of the new rule,… More
As noted in our earlier post Pre-IPO Companies can have disclosure obligations too, a recent Rule 701 enforcement action by the SEC has served as a reminder of the pitfalls that exist for private companies with increasing valuations and robust equity compensation programs. Happily, some relief is on the way based on a provision included in the recently enacted Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.… More
This week the SEC staff expanded relief for the disclosure of non-GAAP financial forecasts used in business combinations.
In these transactions, public companies routinely obtain fairness opinions from an investment bank regarding the value of the consideration to be paid to shareholders, and the fairness opinions normally rely on financial projections provided by the company. These projections are often prepared in a way that varies from GAAP and,… More
On November 1, 2017, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin 14I reflecting guidance ostensibly easing its prior views on the availability of no-action relief for certain shareholder proposals submitted under Rule 14a-8. The guidance affects four topics under the rule:
The SEC recently amended Exchange Act Rule 15c6 1(a) to shorten the standard settlement cycle for most broker dealer securities transactions from “T+3” to “T+2.” In plain English, the old rule provided that any trade of securities must settle within three business days following the trade date, or T, meaning the buyer must have the security in its brokerage account and the seller must have the cash by that date.… More
Effective September 1, 2017, public companies will be required to include hyperlinks to each exhibit listed in the exhibit index to a registration statement or report. Exhibits filed in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) or exhibits filed with Form ABS-EE are excluded from this requirement. This requirement will make all exhibits to a filing, including those incorporated by reference from earlier filings, more easily accessible to investors. Companies should plan for additional review time,… More
On October 1, 2017, fees for registration statements under the Securities Act will increase to $124.50 per million from $115.90 per million, a 7% increase. The new fee rate will also apply to proxy statements for mergers and acquisitions and tender offer statements.
Issuers who anticipate a near-term need to file a registration statement, such as a shelf registration statement on Form S-3, should consider whether the filing can be made before the higher fee rate kicks in.… More
Effective today, July 10, 2017, the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance will accept draft registration statements for review on a confidential basis from an expanded group of issuers. The confidential submission process, which was formerly limited to IPOs by emerging group companies, or EGCs, is now available to most issuers and also in conjunction with follow‑on offerings in the first year after the IPO or an initial listing on a stock exchange.… More