Cooley PubCo Thought leadership and curated content for the public securities arena

Time 2020-09-09 17:04:58

Web Name: Cooley PubCo Thought leadership and curated content for the public securities arena

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Securities No primary direct listings for now—order approving NYSE rule changestayed On August 26, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets took action, pursuant to delegated authority, to approve a proposed NYSE rule change that would allow companies going public to raise capital through a primary direct listing.  (See this PubCo post.) This week, that rule change hit a “snag,” as the WSJ put it—the SEC notified the NYSE that the approval order had been stayed because the SEC had received a notice of intention to petition for review of the approval order. What’s that about? Securities SEC adopts amendments to modernize Reg S-K requirements for business, legal proceedings and risk factor disclosures(UPDATED) [This post revises and updates my earlier post primarily to reflect the contents of the adopting  release.]By a vote of three to two, on Wednesday, the SEC voted to adopt amendments, substantially as proposed with some modifications, to modernize the Reg S-K disclosure requirements related to the descriptions of business, legal proceedings and risk factors. As Chair Jay Clayton observed in his Statement, these Reg S-K disclosure items “essentially have not changed in over 30 years,” but much has changed in our economy since that time, making these updates well warranted. The changes are a component of the SEC’s Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative and reflect public comments on the SEC’s 2016 Concept Release (see this PubCo post) and the 2019 Reg S-K proposal (see this PubCo post), as well as experience from the staff’s disclosure review process. In devising the final amendments, the SEC considered the “many changes that have occurred in our capital markets and the domestic and global economy” since the requirements were adopted. The amendments largely reflect the SEC’s historic “commitment to a principles-based, registrant-specific approach to disclosure” that, although “prescriptive in some respects,” is “rooted in materiality” and designed to provide an understanding of a company’s business through the lens that management and the board apply in managing and assessing the company’s performance. While there are changes throughout, the most significant change is the enhancement of the disclosure requirement for human capital, a topic that has been front-burnered by the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce. How substantially disclosure changes as a result of these amendments remains to be seen. The amendments will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Securities NYSE persistence pays off—SEC approves primary directlistings Persistence pays off. In June, the NYSE filed Amendment No. 2 to its application for a proposed rule change to allow companies going public to raise capital through a primary direct listing. Yesterday, the SEC approved that rule change. Prior to this new approval, under NYSE rules, only secondary sales were permitted in a direct listing, which meant that companies that had conducted direct listings looked more like well-heeled unicorns, where the company was not necessarily in need of additional capital. The new rule change is likely to be a game changer for the traditional underwritten IPO. So much so, in fact, that Nasdaq has now also submitted an application to permit companies to conduct direct listings with capital raises. Securities SEC decreases fee rates for fiscal 2021, which begins October 1,2020 Today, the SEC announced that it was reducing the fees it charges issuers to register their securities. In fiscal 2021, the fee rates for registration of securities and certain other transactions will be $109.10 per million dollars, down from $129.80 per million dollars last year. Securities SEC votes to modernize Reg S-K requirements for business, legal proceedings and risk factordisclosures At an open meeting this morning, the SEC voted (three to two) to adopt amendments, substantially as proposed, to modernize the Reg S-K disclosure requirements related to the descriptions of business, legal proceedings and risk factors. As Chair Jay Clayton observed in his Statement, these Reg S-K disclosure items “essentially have not changed in over 30 years,” but much has changed in our economy since that time, making these updates well warranted. The changes are a component of the SEC’s Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative and reflect public comments on the SEC’s 2016 Concept Release (see this PubCo post) and the 2019 proposal (see this PubCo post)—although the extent to which those comments were taken into account was subject to some debate, as discussed below—as well as learning from the staff’s disclosure review process. As described in the press release, the amendments mainly adopt a “principles-based, registrant-specific approach to disclosure” that is intended to elicit information “on a basis consistent with the lens that management and the board of directors use to manage and assess the registrant s performance.”  The amendments are also intended to discourage repetition, reduce disclosure of information that is not material and simplify compliance.  While there are changes throughout, the most significant change is the enhancement of the disclosure requirement for human capital, a topic that has been front-burnered by the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce.  The amendments will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Corporate Governance Addressing the challenge of board racialdiversity After taking up the challenge of increasing board gender diversity, companies are now increasingly facing the challenge of achieving board racial diversity.  Recent social unrest over systemic racial injustice has pushed racial inequity into sharp relief, leading many companies to consider actions they could take to implement the needed systemic transformation. Because, as it’s often said, change starts at the top, one approach has been to increase the number of African-Americans represented on boards. This recent paper in the Harvard Business Review asks “Why Do Boards Have So Few Black Directors?” And the “Black Corporate Directors Time Capsule Project,” a survey undertaken by Barry Lawson Williams, a retired director who has served on 14 corporate boards, seeks to “capture the experiences” of 50 seasoned Black directors “for the benefit of the next generation of Black corporate directors.”  The survey, which in part addresses the issue of recruitment of Black directors, is also replete with other great observations and advice, too extensive to cover in full here, including advice for aspiring directors. Securities Proposal to allow SEC to take certain administrative actions on EDGAR without advancenotice The SEC is proposing a new rule in connection with the administration of EDGAR.  Apparently, with increased volume on EDGAR, the SEC has faced administrative issues that potentially impact EDGAR’s reliability and integrity. (Even phony filings!) Proposed Rule 15 would permit the SEC (and its staff) to take the following actions, including actions without advance, to promote the reliability and integrity of EDGAR submissions. Accounting and AuditingCorporate GovernanceCOVID-19 World Economic Forum offers framework for valuing human capital—will it catchon? With the SEC presumably about to adopt enhanced disclosure requirements for human capital next week (see this PubCo post), this new report from the World Economic Forum in Davos, prepared in collaboration with consultant Willis Towers Watson, offers a timely new framework for valuing human capital.  While the COVID-19 pandemic has increased our focus on the value of the workforce as an asset, this shift in perspective is not entirely new: SEC Chair Jay Clayton has long recognized that, while, historically, companies’ most valuable assets were plant, property and equipment, and human capital was primarily a cost, now, human capital often represents “an essential resource and driver of performance for many companies. This is a shift from human capital being viewed, at least from an income statement perspective, as a cost.” But he also recognized that developing a metric around this issue was not so easy. (See this PubCo post.) The pandemic, however, serves as a springboard: the new WEF report contends that, as “companies look to reset for the new world of work that emerges from the pandemic, they would benefit from an approach that values talent as a key asset that contributes to an organization’s sustained value creation. This calls for the development of a new human capital accounting framework, which would enable a company’s board and management to track how their investment in people is augmenting the firm’s human capital, and support the delivery of better outcomes for the business, the workforce and the wider community.” The report seeks to offer that framework. Whether it actually catches on is another question. Corporate Governance Does workplace sexual harassment predict poor stock priceperformance? We’ve certainly seen any number of examples of companies taking a big hit when sexual harassment of employees by key executives comes to light—sometimes someone even makes a pretty good movie about it.  But what about your everyday non-CEO harasser? Does workplace sexual harassment affect the value of the company?  Some might argue that it’s just a case of correlation, not causation, but in this study, the authors found that a high incidence of workplace sexual harassment has a powerful adverse impact on company value. Toxic culture, it turns out, matters when it comes to shareholder value. Corporate GovernanceCOVID-19 Nom/Gov committees response toCOVID-19 In a recent survey of over 70 nominating/governance committee chairs of S P 500 and Fortune 500 companies, consultant SpencerStuart asked respondents about how their boards responded to COVID-19 and the nature of any long-term governance changes they anticipated post-pandemic. Somewhat surprisingly, given the issues COVID-19 has created or highlighted for companies, committee chairs do not appear to be in any kind of rush to institute changes—in fact, quite the opposite seems to be the prevailing perspective. Is it just too soon to be thinking about structural or other adjustments to the board? Or, does “stay at home” also mean “stay the course”?

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