On December 15, 2021, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued proposed amendments to its existing rules regarding disclosures about purchases of an issuer’s equity securities by or on behalf of the issuer or an affiliated purchaser, commonly referred to as “buybacks.” The Proposed Amendments would apply to issuers that repurchase securities registered
Good Corporate Hygiene Part 1: Share trading and repurchases
June 21, 2021 Webinar
1:00pm – 2:00pm EDT
Register here.
Under Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton’s leadership, the SEC focused on a number of areas that were collectively termed “good corporate hygiene.” These subsumed policies related to trading in a company’s stock, especially the use of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans and the
What’s the Deal? Compendium
A compendium of our What’s the Deal? series, providing brief overviews of popular financing methodologies and securities issues and practice pointers, is now available for download here.
Lexis Practice Advisor Practice Note – Top 10 Practice Tips: Stock Repurchase Programs
This practice note includes 10 practice tips that may help you, as counsel to a public company or a repurchase agent, in implementing a stock repurchase program on behalf of your client. A stock repurchase program enables a company to buy back a certain number of its outstanding securities. In recent years, the repurchase activity
SEC Clarifies BDC Repurchase Obligation
On October 17, 2019, the Staff of the Division of Investment Management released FAQs meant to assist business development companies (“BDCs”) that have obtained the requisite approvals for lowering their asset coverage from 200% to 150% in satisfying the applicable repurchase offer obligation. As required by Section 61(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940,
Social Costs of Dividends and Repurchases
In a recent paper, referenced above, author JB Heaton analyzes the extent to which the ability of corporations to return capital to their shareholders through dividends and repurchases results in substantial social costs. As a result, he argues that it would be beneficial to restrict dividend payments and share repurchases. Heaton notes that dividend
Buyback Debate Continues
As we have previously blogged, a number of Congressmen have committed to introduce legislation that would limit or even prohibit the ability of a public company to repurchase its own stock. There is a Schumer-Sanders bill that would prohibit a public company from buying back its own stock unless the company has committed to, and
Proposed Legislation to Watch
There are a number of legislative proposals making their way through the House and the Senate that would affect public reporting companies and are gathering some momentum, so they bear watching. Here are a few highlights:
- Diversity Disclosure Requirements: H.R. 970, which has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives, titled the “Improving Corporate Governance
Share Repurchases
In a white paper titled, “Taking Stock,” published by MSCI and written by Ric Marshall, Pano Seretis, and Agnes Grunfeld, the authors analyze the effect of share buybacks. As we have written in a number of prior posts, particularly following US tax reform, corporate share buybacks have been criticized in the popular press