On September 20, 2017, the staff of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance issued revised compliance and disclosure interpretations ("C&DIs") for purposes reflecting updates for prior amendments to Securities Act Rules 147 and 504, the repeal of Securities Act Rule 505 and non-substantive changes throughout the Rule 147 and Regulation D C&DIs based on the SEC's current rules. Highlights of the C&DIs (Questions 257.08, 258.03, 258.05, 258.06 and 541.03) include, among other things, the following guidance:
- A Securities Act Rule 506 offering will not lose “covered security” status under Securities Act Section 18 if an issuer fails to file a Form D with the SEC.
- Rule 504 is available to a private fund excluded from the definition of "investment company" by Section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act so long as the offering under Rule 504 is not a "public offering."
- The example of the calculation of the aggregate offering price provided in the instruction to paragraph (b)(2) of Rule 504 does not contemplate integration of two or more offerings.
- Rule 504 is not available to any issuer that is subject to disqualification under Rule 506(d) on or after January 20, 2017. On or after this date, issuers must determine if they are subject to bad actor disqualification any time they are offering or selling securities in reliance on Rule 504.
- If a family trust that is not deemed to be a separate legal entity has two trustees, only one of which resides in a state where a Rule 147 offering is being made, the issuer may still offer and sell securities to the family trust in the Rule 147 offering.
Questions 258.04, 260.02 and 541.02 and Section 259 were removed.
The revised C&DIs are available here.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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