SEC Adopts Rule Giving Access to Capital for Smaller Companies

SEC Agency Rule-Making & Guidance

On March 25, the SEC adopted final rules to amend Regulation A, a current exemption from registration for smaller companies issuing securities.  The new rules, which allow smaller companies to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities within a twelve-month period – subject to certain eligibility, disclosure, and reporting requirements – expand Regulation A into two tiers for offering securities. Tier 1 allows eligible issuers to sell up to $20 million of securities without registration so long as security-holders who are affiliates of such issuers sell no more than $6 million in securities, whereas Tier 2 permits such issuers to sell up to $50 million of securities yet caps affiliate sales at $15 million. Moreover, Tier 2 offerings are subject to further supplementary disclosure and reporting requirements (e.g., requiring eligible issuers to provide audited financial statements and file annual and semiannual current event reports), and allow eligible issuers to preempt state registration and qualification requirements for securities sold to “qualified purchasers,” as such term is defined in the rules. The new rules will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.