On August 26, 2020, pursuant to delegated authority by the Commission, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets approved changes to NYSE listing rules to allow companies to raise capital in connection with a direct listing on the NYSE without a firm commitment offering.   Currently, the NYSE has discretion to approve direct listings at the time of effectiveness of a company’s initial registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933 filed solely for the purpose of allowing existing shareholders to sell their shares without a firm commitment offering (a “selling shareholder direct listing”).  Under the new rules, the NYSE would be permitted to approve a direct listing by a company that sells shares itself in the opening auction on the first day of trading on the NYSE (a “primary direct listing”) in addition to, or instead of, a selling shareholder direct listing.

On August 31, 2020, the SEC notified the NYSE that the rule changes have been stayed following receipt of notice, reportedly by the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), that CII plans to submit a petition for review by the full Commission of the delegated approval by the Division of Trading and Markets.

The CII had commented on the rule proposal expressing concern about, among other things, the potential for reduced liability under technical principles under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 due to challenges in tracing shares back to the registration statement.  The SEC staff had considered those concerns, but had noted

The SEC adopted amendments on August 26, 2020 by a 3-2 vote, to expand the definition of “accredited investor,” paving the way for certain financially sophisticated institutional and individual investors to participate in private capital market offerings. The SEC release notably invited members of the public to propose to the Commission additional specific certifications, designations, degrees, or programs of study that should qualify someone to be an accredited investor.

Click here to read the Alert in full.

On August 26, 2020, by a 3-2 party-line vote, the SEC adopted amendments to Regulation S-K that aim to modernize the descriptions of business and legal proceedings, and risk factor disclosure requirements. The amendments reflect a principles-based approach in which disclosure objectives are set and management is permitted to exercise judgment on how to satisfy those objectives — tailored to the particular registrant — to the extent such information is material to an understanding of the topic.

We have prepared a client alert describing the amendments in more detail.  The following is a brief summary.

Description of Business (Items 101(a) and (c)). The amendments provide a nonexclusive list of the types of information that a company may need to disclose, based on a principles-based approach. For example, a company would describe its dependence on key products and services that are material instead of focusing on products and services that meet the quantitative thresholds based on revenue currently prescribed in Item 101(c)(1)(i).

Among other things, the revised list of disclosure topics relating to the general development of a company’s business and accompanying business description:

• Eliminates the look-back in Item 101(a) – generally five years, or three years for smaller reporting companies — to focus on material developments of a company’s business, regardless of a specific time frame.
• Revises and expands the list of disclosure topics in Item 101(c) with a principles-based, non-exclusive list of topics.
• Require, to the extent material, new disclosures regarding “human capital resources,” which includes any
  

Based on Q2 reporting to date, few companies opted to present non-GAAP financial measures using the new metric term “EBITDAC” (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization – and COVID-19).  That is not surprising, given the concerns raised by credit rating agencies, the CFA Institute and U.S. creditors, among others, about the potential for EBITDAC to distort and misrepresent companies’ earnings.

Instead, many companies appeared to heed SEC advice, including CF Disclosure Guidance: Topic No. 9A, as described in our June 24, 2020 post, and CF Disclosure Guidance: Topic No. 9 as described in our April 2, 2020 post .  In addition to including discussions of COVID-19 business impacts in earnings releases, many included such discussions in MD&A in the Q2 Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.  Rather than disclosing the impact of COVID-19 as a non-GAAP financial measure, many presented traditional operating or statistical metrics while separately quantifying the effect of the pandemic, such as “Operating expenses increased 25% compared to the second quarter of 2019, 15% of which was due to COVID-19 supplies, cleaning and other incremental costs.”

While few companies used the EBITDAC label as noted above, some appeared to be using the concept without the label.  For example, some adjusted their adjusted EBITDA for COVID-19 expenses or presented gross margin without COVID-19 impacts.  Such COVID-19 adjustments may be more likely to draw SEC scrutiny during ordinary periodic filing reviews, especially when viewed in hindsight.  The staff has taken the position that “presenting a

A well-known plaintiffs’ law firm recently filed derivative lawsuits against four prominent companies, alleging false proxy disclosures and breaches of fiduciary duties.  The allegations focus on the absence of Black directors and executive leadership, and in some cases other persons of color, and very few Black employees, and purported false statements about the companies’ commitment to diversity.

The allegations of proxy statement misstatements, which include breaches of the duty of candor, vary somewhat among the complaints, but generally focus on:

• Statements touting the board’s consideration of diversity in the nominating process;
• Statements regarding the importance of diversity and inclusion in the company’s employment practices;
• The absence of terms limits and the failure to discuss their effect on the nomination of Blacks and minorities; and
• The failure to consider diversity and inclusion goals in executive compensation decisions and the lack of disclosure of the company’s unlawful discriminatory hiring and pay practices.

The complaints typically cite disclosures in the corporate governance and CD&A sections of the proxy statement, but in some cases also focus on company responses to shareholder proposals that relate to diversity and employment practices.

The allegations of breaches of fiduciary duties focus on directors’ failure to oversee compliance with anti-discrimination laws, citing class action settlements and/or government investigations regarding gender or other discrimination, and failing to ensure the inclusion of diverse candidates as directors, citing board committee charters and proxy disclosures.  Some of the complaints also challenged director and/or executive compensation as excessive or unjust in light

On Wednesday, the SEC adopted amendments to the proxy solicitation rules  relating to proxy voting advisors and issued new supplemental guidance relating to the proxy voting responsibilities of investment advisers when using automated voting.

We have prepared a client alert describing the amendments and guidance in more detail.  The following is a brief summary.

The proxy rule amendments effected three principal changes:

• They codify the SEC’s previous interpretation that proxy voting advice produced by “proxy voting advice businesses” (PVABs or proxy advisory firms), such as ISS and Glass Lewis, generally constitutes a “solicitation” for purposes of Rule 14a-1(l) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
• In order for PVABs to avoid the information and filing requirements of the proxy rules, PVABs must:
  • Disclose material conflicts of interest to their clients as well as any policies and procedures used to identify, and steps taken to address, any material conflicts.
  • Establish and publicly disclose policies and procedures reasonably designed to allow registrants that are the subject of the PVABs’ voting advice to be able to access that advice prior to or at the same time as the advice is disseminated to the advisory firms’ clients.
  • Adopt and publicly disclose policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure the PVABs provide their clients with a mechanism by which they can reasonably be expected to become aware of any written responses by registrants to such voting advice, in a timely manner before the shareholder meeting or other action.
• Third, the amended
  

This week marked the 10th anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law on July 21, 2020.  At various virtual events celebrating the milestone, including a webinar co-sponsored by advocacy group Better Markets and George Washington University Law School’s Business and Finance Law Program, creators Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, as well as former President Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters, among others, shared their insights and memories, as well as views on the Dodd-Frank Act’s role in strengthening banks, which arguably helped them withstand the COVID-19 storm.

The SEC website page on implementing the Dodd-Frank Act shows that to date, the SEC has adopted final rules for 67 mandatory rulemaking provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.  Here is what remains outstanding:

• Executive Compensation: 4 proposed
  • Section 953(a): Pay vs. performance disclosure (proposed rules issued April 29, 2015 that continue to be characterized as a Long-Term Action on SEC’s recently released Spring 2020 Reg-Flex Agenda)
  • Section 954: Recovery of executive compensation (proposed rules issued July 1, 2015 and listed in the short term “proposed rule stage” of the Spring 2020 Reg-Flex Agenda)
  • Section 956(a):  Compensation structure reporting at certain financial institutions (jointly proposed rules issued May 6, 2016 that continue to be characterized as a Long-Term Action on SEC’s recently released Spring 2020 Reg-Flex Agenda)
  • Section 956(b): Prohibition on certain compensation arrangements at certain financial institutions (jointly proposed rules
    

On Friday, July 10, the SEC proposed amendments to Form 13F to substantially increase the reporting threshold to $3.5 billion from the current level of $100 million and make certain other changes.  This would be the first change to the threshold since the form was adopted in 1978.

SEC rules require institutional investment managers to file a Form 13F for each quarter if the accounts over which they exercise investment discretion hold more than $100 million of “13(f) securities”, which primarily consist of U.S. exchange-traded stocks, shares of closed-end investment companies and shares of ETFs.  The form was adopted to promote greater visibility into the investment activities and holdings of larger investment managers.

According to the SEC, the new threshold would reflect proportionally the same market value of U.S. equities that $100 million represented in 1975, when Congress directed the SEC to develop a reporting regime.  The SEC believes the change would result in disclosure of over 90% of the dollar value of the holdings data currently reported while eliminating the Form 13F filing requirement and its attendant costs for the nearly 90% of filers that are smaller managers. Further, the aggregate value of section 13(f) securities reported by managers would represent approximately 75% of the U.S. equities market as a whole, as compared with 40% in 1981, the earliest year for which Form 13F data is available.

At the same time, the SEC acknowledges that some of the holdings data that would no longer be reported relates

On June 30, 2020, Jay Clayton, SEC chair, and Bill Hinman, Director of Corporation Finance, hosted an investor roundtable seeking input from investors on how to improve disclosures during this period of COVID-19.  The participants included Gary Cohn, Former Director of the National Economic Council; Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island; Tracy Maitland, President and CIO of Advent Capital; and Barbara Novick, Vice Chairman and Co-Founder of BlackRock.

The discussion was wide-ranging, but several themes emerged:

• While swift government action from the Federal Reserve and the CARES Act appears to have helped stabilize the economy and markets, investors expressed concern that the macro-economic picture remains very uncertain, particularly as certain government programs expire.
• Investors want to see greater transparency as to how the company expects to perform in the near term, including with respect to such matters as cash flow, working capital and covenant compliance as well as key assumptions. For example, is the company’s ability to restore production dependent on schools reopening so that parents can return to work?  Or does the company’s supply chain depend on European travel being restored?
• Glenn Hutchins noted that fewer than 10% of the S&P 500 have maintained earnings guidance. As a result, investors seek greater insight into the range of potential outcomes and the ability of companies to manage through different scenarios as well as a greater understanding if companies have “tools for adaptability” and an ability to adjust to changes in an uncertain environment. He cited the joint statement
  

In light of health, transportation and logistical issues raised by COVID-19, the SEC staff recently extended previously announced relief for several types of submissions.

• Form 144 paper filings and certain forms (other than 144s) that are permitted to be filed in paper (such as annual or other reports by foreign private issuers on Form 6-K, Form 11-K and certain other specified forms) may be submitted via email in lieu of mailing or physical delivery if the complete Form 144 or other document is attached as a PDF sent to PaperForms144@sec.gov or CorporationFinancePaperForms@SEC.gov, respectively.
  • If a manual signature cannot be provided with the email, the SEC staff has announced that it will not recommend enforcement action if a typed signature is included instead and: (i) a manually signed page or other document acknowledging or otherwise adopting his or her signature in the filing is retained by the signatory and is provided upon request by the SEC staff; (ii) the signature page indicates the date and time when signed; and (iii) appropriate policies and procedures are established relating to this process.
  • Filers may continue to submit these documents to the SEC mailroom but there may be delays in processing.
• The signature requirement for Edgar filings may create challenges for public companies and other filers to have such filings executed before the time of the electronic filing due to circumstances arising from COVID-19. While the SEC staff expects filers to comply with requirements to