US SEC Brings in Top Gun Lawyer to Promote IPOs, Expand JOBS Act

hinman-sec-ipo-offering

May 15–The US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), following policy goals advanced by the Trump administration, is sharpening its focus on encouraging private companies to go public via IPOs. Towards that effort, veteran Silicon Valley tech deal lawyer Bill Hinman, a former partner of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett who has guided the likes of among others, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NYSE:FB)  has been appointed Director of the SEC’s Corporation Finance division; the unit that oversees initial public offerings.  SEC Commissioner  Jay Clayton, who has called for scaling back requirements on listed firms and argued the government should make it “more attractive” to go public and according to Clayton, “Bill Hinman is the ideal man for the job.”

The top Corporation Finance Division post will be crucial because of the unit’s role in writing rules that govern public and private capital-raising.

In an interview, Mr. Hinman said “spurring more public offerings is a worthy goal of regulators, because investors benefit from the detailed public disclosures.” Hinman has also voiced his view towards further expanding the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. The law, also known as the JOBS Act, passed with bipartisan support and was hailed as the first sign that Washington understood how the internet could be used to help smaller companies raise money without turning to Wall Street.

“To the extent the SEC can make it more attractive and efficient to raise capital here, we are going to want to do that,” he said. “That is our primary focus and challenge going forward.”

Companies raised $2.1 trillion in private placements of stocks and bonds in 2014, compared with about $1.35 trillion for public sales of equity and debt, according to SEC figures. The decline in U.S. public listings has happened as fast-growing startups such as Uber Technologies Inc. and other “unicorns” have been able to get the cash they need from venture capitalists.

However much deal makers have lauded the SEC’s new-found resolve to promote public offerings, some market participants say they don’t see the problem that Mr. Clayton has said he wants to solve. “The real question is do small-growth companies have access to capital, and they do,” according to Robin Graham, managing director and head of technology, media and communications at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. “It’s just in the private markets.”

According to Samuel Goldberg, a senior partner at Prospectus.com, a firm that specializes in business plan writing, feasibility studies and the preparation of investor offering documents and guiding private companies throughout the course of both private placements and public capital raising initiatives, “Public markets are ultimately the holy grail for start-up companies; easing the complexities of public listing can prove helpful for those who have private investors seeking exit strategies and enabling share Issuers to attract a new and much broader universe of investors.”

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BrokerDealers Help Mint Billionaires in 2014; Greed Is Good, Funding is Fun

startup valuationsBrokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from 29 Dec edition of the Wall Street Journal, with reporting by Evelyn M. Rusli

As brokerdealers, investment bankers, institutional investors and entrepreneurs “close the books” on 2014, all will agree this has been a remarkable year in which “billion dollar valuations” have seemingly been the norm. Most notably, technological start-ups have enjoyed increasing valuations with each subsequent round of financing from private equity and venture capital firms, albeit many financial industry professionals are wondering whether those valuations can carry over when these private companies embark on initial public offerings (IPOs).

While “Wall Street” protagonist Gordon Gekko coined the phrase “Greed is Good!,” the Broker-Dealers mantra for 2014 was “Funding is Fun!”

Below please find highlights of the WSJ article.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. is now officially the world’s most valuable tech startup, worth $46 billion—the exclamation point on a year of extraordinary valuations. Continue reading

Next Generation BrokerDealers Dare to Displace Old Guard Banks and Brokerages

Start-up broker-dealer “Aspiration” aspires to succeed via “pay us what you think we deserve” model; Palo Alto’s “Robinhood” offers “commission-free trading” and wants to make money the old-fashioned way: interest on deposits and margin loans (in a near-zero interest rate environment).  For those inspired by this new trend, BrokerDealer.com provides a forum by which start-ups in the finance industry can network with prospective investors.

BrokerDealer.com blog update is courtesy of below extracts from 23 Dec NYT DealBook story by William Alden.

Editors note: For those not aware, the notion of “commission-free trading” is often a fallacy and a term that financial industry regulators somehow allow service providers to use, despite Finra’s self-acclaiming focus for cracking down on deceptive advertising. Few brokerdealers offer anything for ‘free’. Those who offer ‘commission-free’ trading for customers typically receive rebate payments aka payment for order flow checks in consideration for routing customer orders to the various electronic exchanges who dangle kickbacks in consideration for brokers delivering orders to their venue.

Andrei Cherny, Aspiration CEO

Andrei Cherny, Aspiration CEO

From Dealbook: “..A number of new financial start-ups are trying to reach younger and middle-class Americans by upending the customary fee structure of traditional brokerage firms and money managers. They are backed by deep-pocketed venture capital investors — and even celebrities like the rapper Snoop Dogg — who are wagering that these upstarts can challenge the Wall Street establishment…

Aspiration, a start-up wealth manager on Sunset Boulevard here, which had its official debut last month, is asking customers to pay whatever they think is “fair.” That can be as much as 2 percent of their assets, or as low as zero. Reflecting its high-minded goals, the company has also pledged to donate 10 percent of its revenue to charity.

Robinhood, a new brokerage firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., whose founders were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, introduced an app this month that lets customers trade stocks without paying commissions. (The firm plans to make money by offering margin loans and by collecting a portion of the interest earned on customer money invested in money market funds.)

Big banks and brokerage firms haven’t been sitting still. Charles Schwab, for example, recently said it would introduce an automated investment service that doesn’t charge advisory fees. But many are constrained by new regulations or their own inertia. The public’s persistent skepticism of these institutions in the wake of the financial crisis hasn’t helped, either.

Some industry experts have voiced skepticism about the viability of the new business models, including those of Aspiration and Robinhood. But venture capitalists have been happy to bet that technology-focused start-ups can offer more appealing products for buying stocks or managing savings. Continue reading

Former Boss of Bosses For BrokerDealers Joins Bitcoin Bandwagon; Ex-SEC Head Arthur Levitt Is on Board

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of reporting from WSJ and other news outlets

Arthur Levitt, the longest-serving chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is joining the advisory boards of two bitcoin-focused companies.

Frmer SEC Head Arthur Levitt, photo by Reuters

Frmer SEC Head Arthur Levitt, photo by Reuters

As an adviser to Atlanta-based BitPay, a bitcoin payment processor, and Vaurum, a Palo Alto-based bitcoin exchange for institutional investors, Mr. Levitt says he hopes to “help them understand the imperative of a robust approach to regulation” if bitcoin is to fulfill its promise to further shake up the world of finance. The appointments will be formally announced Tuesday.

Bitcoin is an independent digital currency in which transactions are verified by a network of computer owners and a universal payments ledger. The model strips out banks, credit card companies and other intermediary institutions from electronic payments and so aims to reduce costs in the system.

Mr. Levitt, who ran the SEC between 1993 and 2001 and who these days works in a variety of consulting roles, is one of the highest-profile members of the U.S. financial establishment to work in the digital-currency industry. In an interview, he said he was drawn to the sector by the innovative energy of the young people behind it, a group that he described as always “thinking beyond the box.”

“The intellectual firepower behind [bitcoin] enterprises is astonishing,” Mr. Levitt said. “But I think in terms of compliance and regulations, they are relatively immature.”

He said bitcoin needs regulation to build the trust of the broader population and boost adoption. Bitcoin firms “must have as their top priority a greater public understanding of what bitcoin is, how it works” and of the improvement it brings by “imposing competitiveness on establishment practices and procedures,” he added.

The BitPay and Vaurum appointments come at a crucial time for bitcoin. After it rallied 9100% against the dollar in the 12 months to December 2013, its price has since fallen by 70% from that peak, in part because of regulatory uncertainty.

JOBS ACT Unintended Consequences: Already-Public Companies Reaching Out For More Cash

Brokerdealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from the WSJ story “Rules Eased For StartUps Benefit Older Companies”

But another breed of company is angling to benefit from the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act: freely traded firms, a few of which have been operating for a long time.

Salon Media Group Inc., SLNM -21.05% a 19-year old financially fighting Internet media business, and Giggles N Hugs Inc., GIGL 21.28% a seven-year old food-and-play-space chain, are among dozens of publicly traded companies that have signaled they intend to solicit investors using the new independence in the JOBS Act. Both trade on the over-the-counter market, and auditors have raised worries about their capability to continue operations.

The businesses are seeking new investors using some of the JOBS Act that lets small-scale private businesses advertise to affluent people, known as “accredited investors,” changing an 80-year old “general solicitation” marketing prohibition designed to safeguard investors.

The companies’ use of advertising independence meant for young start-ups exemplifies how a surprisingly extensive array of players expect to obtain an advantage under the brand new law. “You can place it in the class of unintended effects,” says New York securities attorney Douglas Ellenoff, referring to using the JOBS Act by publicly traded firms. “The entire purpose” of the law “was to allow it to be simpler for private companies to raise money,” he adds. Continue reading