SEC Adopts Rules to Facilitate Intrastate and Regional Offerings

November 14, 2016

On October 26, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules intended to make intrastate and regional offerings more viable pathways for smaller raises. The new rules (i) amend Rule 147 to simplify the “doing business” standard, (ii) create a new intrastate exemption, Rule 147A, which allows use of the internet and other forms of general solicitation as well as out-of-state incorporation and (iii) increase the 12-month offering cap under Rule 504 from $1 million to $5 million. This post will address all three of these significant reforms.

Amendments to Rule 147

The statutory exemption for intrastate offerings appears in Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Act of 1933, which exempts from registration “any security … offered and sold only to persons resident within a single State … where the issuer … [is incorporated] and doing business within … such State …”. Rule 147 is the safe harbor for Section 3(a)(11), and has not been amended in any significant way since its adoption in 1974.

One of the primary impediments to the use of Rule 147 has been the difficult test that issuers have been required to meet in order to establish sufficient nexus with the state in which the offering is made. To satisfy the doing business test, issuers were required to derive at least 80% of their consolidated gross revenues in-state, have at least 80% of their consolidated assets in-state and use at least 80% of net proceeds from the offering in connection with the operation of an in-state business. Requiring an issuer to derive most of its revenue, maintain a majority of its assets and invest most of the capital it raises all in one state could create inefficient constraints for many emerging companies to operate and grow.

The final rules modify the current “doing business” in-state requirements in Rule 147 by requiring issuers to satisfy only one of four specified tests. Under amended Rule 147 (and new Rule 147A), in order to be deemed to be “doing business” in a state, an issuer will have to satisfy only one of the following requirements:

80% of consolidated assets located in-state;
80% of consolidated gross revenues derived from operation of a business or of real property located in or from the rendering of services within such state;
80% of net offering proceeds intended to be used, and are in fact used, in connection with the operation of a business or of real property, the purchase of real property located in, or the rendering of services within such state; or
Majority of employees are in such state.

The final rules take a side-by-side approach, adopting amendments to modernize Rule 147 and also establishing a brand new intrastate offering exemption under the Securities Act, designated Rule 147A, which will be similar to amended Rule 147 but with no prohibition on offers to non-residents and allowing issuers to be incorporated out of state. Under the final rules, issuers will be able to choose between utilizing Rule 147 and Rule 147A for intrastate offerings based on their preferences for communicating with investors. The SEC elected to keep and modify Rule 147 as a safe harbor under Section 3(a)(11) to allow issuers to continue to rely on state law exemptions that are conditioned upon compliance with Section 3(a)(11) and Rule 147.

New Rule 147A

In addition to the overly restrictive doing business requirements, two other features have served to dissuade issuers from taking advantage of the intrastate exemption. The first is the requirement that issuers be incorporated in-state, which disqualifies many emerging companies all over the country that choose to incorporate in management friendly confines like Delaware (or are forced to do so by their investors). Second is the prohibition on making offers to out-of-state residents, even if sales are made only to in-state residents, which effectively eliminates the use of the internet, social media and other methods of general solicitation in conducting the offering.

New Rule 147A corrects these shortcomings. First, there is no requirement that the issuer be incorporated in-state. So, for example, a company incorporated in Delaware that has its principal place of business in New York may sell to New York investors. Second, it permits offers to out-of-state residents so long as all sales are limited to in-state residents, and more broadly allows general solicitation and general advertising (including use of unrestricted websites). When using space-constrained social media like Twitter to solicit, the issuer may use an active hyperlink to the offering disclosure. Rule 147A does require, however, prominent disclosure in all offering materials that sales will be made only to residents of the same state as the issuer.

Features Common to Amended Rule 147 and New Rule 147A

Both amended Rule 147 and new Rule 147A contain the following common features:

Issuer “principal place of business” must be in-state, and issuer must satisfy at least one “doing business” requirement that would demonstrate in-state nature of issuer’s business;
New “reasonable belief” standard in determining purchaser’s residence;
Issuers must obtain written residency representation from each purchaser;
Resales limited to state residents for a six month period;
Integration safe harbor that would include prior offers or sales of securities by the issuer, as well as certain post-offering offers or sales; and
Legend requirements to offerees and purchasers about resale limits.

Amendment to Rule 504

Rule 504 of Regulation D exempts from registration offers and sales of up to $1,000,000 of securities in any rolling 12-month period. Two of Rule 504’s general requirements, the prohibition on general solicitation and securities sold being deemed “restricted” securities, do not apply if the offer and sale are made:

exclusively in one or more states that provide for the registration of the securities, and require the public filing and delivery to investors of a disclosure document before sale;
in one or more states that require no registration, filing or delivery of a disclosure document before sale, if the securities have been registered in at least one state that provides for such registration, filing and delivery; or
exclusively according to state law exemptions that permit general solicitation so long as sales are made only to “accredited investors”.

Several states have instituted coordinated review programs to streamline the state registration process for issuers seeking to undertake multi-state registrations in reliance upon Rule 504. Because these offerings are typically limited to a few states, review of these offerings is undertaken on a regional basis. These programs establish uniform review standards and are designed to expedite the registration process, thereby potentially saving issuers time and money.

The new rules amend Rule 504 to increase the aggregate amount of securities that may be offered and sold from $1 million to $5 million. The SEC is hoping that the higher offering cap will promote capital formation by increasing the flexibility of state securities regulators to implement coordinated review programs to facilitate regional offerings.

The final rules repeal Rule 505 of Regulation D, which exempts offers and sales of up to $5 million and is now rendered obsolete by amended Rule 504. The rules also apply bad actor disqualifications to Rule 504 offerings, consistent with other rules in Regulation D.

Effective Dates

The foregoing reforms have the following effective dates:

Amended Rule 147: 150 days after publication in the Federal Register
New Rule 147A: 150 days after publication in the Federal Register
Amended Rule 504: 60 days after publication in the Federal Register
Repeal of Rule 505: 180 days after publication in the Federal Register