On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed into legislation the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, also known as the “omnibus spending package.” Included in Title VIII therein is legislation titled the Small Business Credit Availability Act (SBCAA) that includes certain regulations under the federal securities laws impacting business development companies (BDCs).  Among other items, the SBCAA allows BDCs to incur significantly more debt and rely on relaxed SEC communication and offering rules that were previously available to operating companies.

Continue Reading Recent Legislation Means Good News for Business Development Companies

Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys Britt Latham and Brian Irving authored an article that was published in The D&O Diary that outlined and discussed the most important trends and developments related to SEC investigations and enforcement proceedings impacting the industry this past year and likely to impact the industry in the coming year. The article includes a discussion of lessons learned from the first year of the Trump administration.

The authors also point to disgorgement as another topic with a changing landscape, with the Supreme Court ruling in Kokesh v. SEC that disgorgement claims are subject to a five-year statute of limitations for enforcing fines, penalties or forfeitures.

Continue Reading Britt Latham and Brian Irving Outline SEC Enforcement Trends under Trump Administration

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Valentine’s Day notice to public companies yesterday that the SEC will be holding an open meeting on Wednesday, February 21, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. EST to consider, among other things, “whether to approve the issuance of an interpretive release to provide guidance to assist public companies in preparing disclosures about cybersecurity risks and incidents.”

Continue Reading SEC Calendars Open Meeting to Consider Issuing an Interpretive Release on Cybersecurity Disclosures

With the potential for a significant change in the corporate tax rate (35% to 20%) this month as a result of the tax bill in Congress, we are re-posting a potential sleeper issue that could arise for some companies in their Q4 and FYE results. If a tax bill is enacted with a lower corporate tax rate (e.g., new 20% rate), companies will need to recalculate their deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities on their balance sheets based on the new rate as the assets and liabilities need to be adjusted in the period of enactment. Any charges would flow through to the companies’ income statements.

Read more about the potential sleeper issue and how it will likely affect your company here.

We thought you may find of interest prepared remarks by SEC Chairman Jay Clayton at the annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation held on November 30, 2017, where he stated, “In the coming months I anticipate that the Commission will consider adopting rules to expand the definition of ‘smaller reporting company’ to permit additional companies to avail themselves of scaled disclosure requirements.” A full transcript of the speech is available at the SEC’s website.

Proposed Rules Would Change Qualifications for Smaller Reporting Companies

As you may recall, in July 2016 the SEC voted to propose amendments that would increase the financial thresholds in the “smaller reporting company” definition. The proposed rules would enable a company with less than $250 million of public float to provide scaled disclosures as a smaller reporting company, as compared to the $75 million threshold under the current definition. The SEC did not, however, propose to increase the $75 million threshold in the “accelerated filer” definition.

Continue Reading SEC Chairman Clayton Expects New Rules on Smaller Reporting Company Definition Soon

In monitoring SEC comment letters, we came across this SEC comment letter made public this month. It serves as a reminder to registrants that, when calculating a company’s public float, there is an informal presumption that a 10% or greater stockholder is an affiliate of the company; however, this presumption is rebuttable by the registrant.

The letter stated that “[t]he Staff has consistently taken the position that the determination of ‘control’ status is dependent in large part on the facts and circumstances involved and, therefore, has declined to state definitively what circumstances will result in a person being deemed to be in ‘control’ of an issuer. While the Company recognizes that, as a rule of thumb, more than 10% ownership has become an informal benchmark at which control should be evaluated, such ownership, standing alone, is not dispositive.”

Continue Reading SEC Comment about “Affiliate” Stockholder in Public Float Calculation

On October 11, the SEC proposed amendments to modernize and simplify disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K, which were mandated by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. In large part, the proposed amendments follow the recommendations of a November 2016 report from the SEC staff.  As one SEC commissioner put it, the incremental adjustments to Regulation S-K are meant to “prune” the SEC’s existing disclosure regime rather than as “an exercise in slash-and-burn clearcutting.”

Below are six highlights from the SEC’s proposed amendments to Regulation S-K:

  1. Rules for Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) would be amended to clarify that a registrant need only provide a period-to-period comparison for the two most recent fiscal years presented in the financial statements and may hyperlink to the prior year’s annual report for additional period-to-period comparison. The proposed amendments would require hyperlinks to information that is incorporated by reference if that information is available on EDGAR. Instruction 1 to Item 303(a).

    Continue Reading Six Highlights from the SEC’s Proposed Amendments to Regulation S-K

On August 5, 2015, the SEC adopted new rules implementing the pay ratio disclosure requirement of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act required the SEC to adopt rules requiring reporting companies to disclose the ratio of the annual compensation of the company’s median employee to the annual compensation of its principal executive officer. These rules will become effective generally for companies in their Form 10-K for the 2017 fiscal year or in their proxy statement for the 2018 annual meeting. Below are some frequently asked questions that companies should be considering now in preparing for this new disclosure.

1. What are the new rules on pay ratio generally?

The new rules are contained in a new Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K added by the SEC. Item 402(u) generally requires companies to disclose

  • the median of the annual total compensation of all company employees other than the company principal executive officer (PEO),
  • the PEO’s annual total compensation, and
  • the ratio between the two numbers.

Continue Reading FAQs on the New SEC Rules on Pay Ratio

Now that the SEC’s new rules on exhibit hyperlinks are live as of September 1, 2017, we have updated our March blog post with the frequently asked question below regarding exhibit indexes.

Where should we put the exhibit index now? Can we combine the list of exhibits and the exhibit index?

In connection with the SEC’s March 2017 amendments implementing the hyperlink requirement, the SEC also amended the rules pertaining to the placement of the exhibit index, which had previously required the exhibit index to “precede immediately the exhibits filed with such registration statement.” As amended, Rule 102(d) of Regulation S-T and Rule 601(a)(2) of Regulation S-K now require the exhibit index to “appear before the required signatures in the registrant statement or report.” Although exhibit index practice has varied, there is some ambiguity as to whether the new rules require a separate exhibit index before the signature page and the exhibits themselves. For example, while some companies are combining the exhibit table with the exhibit index and placing the latter before the signature page, others have been retaining a separate exhibit table and exhibit index and move the latter above the signatures.

Continue Reading Updated: FAQ on New SEC Rules on Exhibit Hyperlinks – Exhibit Indexes

Last week, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued updated guidance on processing procedures for draft registration statements. Below is a FAQ summary table we have prepared related to this new guidance.

There are some nuances in the guidance, so please consult with outside securities counsel before omitting any financial statements in your filing. Contact any member of our Corporate & Securities practice for more information.

Continue Reading 7 Answers to FAQs About the New SEC Guidance for Draft Registration Statements

From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network
From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network

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