Tag Archives: Regulation S-K

The SEC Continues its Efforts to Improve Option Grant Practices

The SEC’s recent Rule 10b5-1 rulemaking has drawn attention to its efforts to crack down on illegal trading by corporate insiders. (See our related post here.)  But less attention has been paid to part of the rulemaking that will likely impact every public company’s option grant practices.

Newly adopted Item 402(x)(2) of Regulation S-K imposes a significant new executive compensation disclosure requirement on public companies.… More

SEC proposes rule changes intended to streamline disclosures of business operations, risk factors and legal proceedings

The SEC recently proposed revisions to Regulation S-K to streamline public companies’ disclosures of their business operations, risk factors and legal proceedings.  The proposed revisions affect Items 101(a) and (c), 103 and 105 of Regulation S-K.

Among other changes, the proposed rules would revise the requirements related to the general business description by adopting:

  • a more principles-based approach that will require each company to address matters material to its business,…
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SEC staff issues additional guidance on exhibit redactions

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:

  • note in the exhibit list that portions of the exhibit have been omitted;…
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SEC continues its disclosure simplification initiative

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:

  • Confidential treatment requests – Very helpfully, the SEC is dispensing with the need to obtain the staff’s prior approval of a confidential treatment request before redacting information from certain exhibits when the information is not material and its disclosure would likely cause competitive harm.…
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Related-party transaction disclosures aren’t always obvious

Related-party transactions are often easy to spot:  the company is on one side of a contract, and a director or officer, or a company they control, is on the other side. But some transactions are less obvious.

The SEC recently brought a settled proceeding against John D. Schiller, Jr., the former CEO of Energy XXI Ltd., a now-defunct Nasdaq-listed issuer, for failing to disclose millions in personal loans from companies that did business with EXXI or the owners of those companies.… More

SEC Enforcement Action Highlights Need for Careful Analysis of Perquisites and Personal Benefits

On July 2, 2018, the SEC brought a settled cease-and-desist proceeding against The Dow Chemical Company for failing to disclose approximately $3 million in executive perquisites, including personal use of company aircraft, in its proxy statements over five years.  The SEC concluded that Dow failed to adequately train key employees to ensure that the proper standard for perquisite disclosures was being applied and that Dow had inadequate processes and procedures to ensure proper reporting of perquisites.… More