Friday, March 15, 2013

What is an S1?

S-1 is the preliminary registration form for new securities requisite by the Securities and Exchange S-1 is the preliminary registration form for new securities requisite by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for public companies. Any offering that complies with the criteria must have an S-1 filing before the shares get listed on a national exchange.

Form S-1 necessitate companies to make available information on the planned use of capital proceeds, explain the current business model and competition, as well present a concise prospectus of the planned security itself, along with submitting price methodology, and any dilution that will occur to other listed securities. The SEC also requires the revelation of any material business transactions between the company and its directors and outside counsel. 

Form S-1 is also known as the "Registration Statement under the Securities Exchange Act of 1933". 

Investors can access the S-1 filings online to perform due analysis on new offerings earlier to the issue. The form is sometimes modified as material information or general market conditions cause a delay in the offering. 

The Securities Exchange Act of 1933, often referred to as the "truth in securities" law, requires that these registration forms are filed to unveil essential information upon registration of a company's securities. This assists the SEC to accomplish the objectives of this act, which is requiring investors to obtain important information on the subject of securities offered, and to proscribe fraud in the sale of the offered securities. 

A relatively easy registration form is the S-3, for companies that do not have the same ongoing reporting requirements. 

All companies can use Form S-1 to register their securities offerings. A registration statement cannot be prepared as a fill-in-blank form, like a tax return. It is more like a brochure, providing legible information to the public. In the S-1, a company must explain each of the following in the prospectus:
  • Its business;
  • The plan for distributing the securities;
  • Its properties;
  • The identity of its officers and directors and their compensation;
  • Material transactions between the company and its officer and directors;
  • The intended use of the proceeds of the offering
  • Results of Operations
  • Certain relationship and related transactions
  • Market for common equity and related stockholder matters
  • Executive compensation and Indemnification of officers
  • Expenses of inussuance and Distribution
  • Material legal proceedings involving the company or its officers and directors;
  • Recent sales an unregistered securities
Information about how to portray these items is set out in SEC rules. Registration statements also must comprise financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant. Apart from the information specifically required by the form, the company must also endow with any other information that is essential to make the disclosure complete and not ambiguous. Company also must clearly express any foreseen risks in the prospectus, usually at the beginning. Examples of these risk factors are:
  • Lack of business operating history;
  • Adverse economic conditions in a particular industry;
  • Lack of a market for the securities offered; and 
  • Dependence upon key personnel. 
Various offerings, which can be done using the Public sale of free trading stock from S-1 are:
  • Initial Public Offering
  • Direct Public Offering
  • Selling stockholder offering
  • Private Investment in Public Equipment  or PIPE
  • Equity Line.
Another Form S-8, also called a registration statement, comprise information provided by a company to SEC, if the company plans to register securities earmarked for employees under the firm's benefit or incentive programs. The S-8 document is concise and hassle free, as long as the material facts about company’s intent to register company securities tied to benefit plans are comprehensive and detailed. The basic differences between S-1 and S-8, S-1 requires quite a few to be filled, providing details of firm’s decision to go public, while S-8 asks for a little detail. Completing S-1 form is a difficult task and takes a long time, considering information gathering, but Form S-8 facilitate companies to register shares quick and easy. Form S-1 must be accompanied by multiple chapters and hundreds of pages of data, while S-8 Form, which generally is a 10 page document, rarely exceeds 20 pages of documentation.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Why Entrepreneurs use Private Placement Memorandums

A document which comprises relevant disclosures so that investors can measure and get to know the risks involved with an investment and make a fully informed decision for the investment is known as Private Placement Memorandum (PPM). A formal PPM is made to fulfill all the disclosure requirement of Rule 502(b) (2) of Regulation D. The rules, though, take under their jurisdiction only certain type of investment which have non-accredited investors, almost every private investment where one solicits more than few investors will need some form of disclosure documents.

Private placement memorandum can at times have some variation in terms like “Confidential Information Memorandum” or “Disclosure Document”, but these are all essentially PPM.

A PPM does not have any specific form. It is based on the type of company which wants to disclose the information to investors. Though there are usually some boxes that need to be checked, regarding disclosure, but the form and information are a company and deal specific. There is a need of Financial, accounting and legal expertise to design a private placement memorandum.

Several ways can be adopted by a company to offer a private placement memorandum.

§    Attorneys. There are firms who approach an attorney to prepare the private placement memorandum. After the designing of PPM is complete, management of the company is responsible for soliciting and approaching the potential new investors. The cost incurred is the fees of the attorney who designed the PPM and the time spend by the management team. Preparing a PPM through an attorney can be a good option for companies’ that already have a well built network of potential investors to pitch the investment opportunity.

§    Investment Banks. The firms can also hire a liaison to assist in raising capital. This can be tricky, confusing, and time consuming. When an entrepreneur works towards raising capital, he/she approaches all sort of institutions offering all kinds of promises to raise money. This can certainly go wrong and confusing. The entrepreneur should be vigilant and informed to hire a right investment bank as one wrong step can kill the company.

§    PPM Specialists. Firms specializing in this arena are often a hybrid between legal counsel and an investment bank

Why Public Private Placement Memorandums?

The PPM should be nice and updated document abiding by all legal requirements because through this document the company is showcasing its best picture to investors, disclosing all risks and other information. The PPM should also be professional, providing all the legal disclosure.

PPM is required to make investors aware that the entrepreneur is seeking to fulfill the applicable SEC rules. Another reason for designing PPM is to add some additional protection to entrepreneur and the company. The private placement memorandum document is drafted to detail the risk factors and more so that investors while reading the offering memorandum will understand the company’s risks. This is important if the company raising the capital ends into bankruptcy. Private placement memorandum is thus a guarantee to the entrepreneur that the investors were aware of all the risk that the company may or may not see in the future. Private placement memorandum serves as the warning to the investors of the risk integrated in the investment and also helps to protect the seller of the security.

The memorandum provides details about the business, background information on management, details the terms of offering (including the number of shares available, the price, and the intended use for the funds), an overview of the company’s capital structure prior and after the sale of securities, discloses the opportunities and risks pertaining to an investment and presents copies of financial statements.

At times, law does not makes written disclosure mandatory, the statement of the issuer still needs to be in compliance with the federal and state anti fraud requirements. The issuer should not make false claims and immaterial facts to the investor. If investor comes across any such material misstatement, irrespective of it being unintentional, investors may file a securities fraud claim against the issuer, and if needed against its directors and officers, as well.

Further, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can enforce civil and criminal penalties, too. A well-prepared PPM helps to keep away a securities fraud claim. It creates the record of every communication which was made to the investors regarding the offering and the company.

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