SEC Expands Confidential Submission Programme

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will allow all issuers to confidentially submit draft registration statements with the SEC in connection with their initial public offerings (IPOs). The programme represents the first major policy change under chairman Jay Clayton in an attempt to reverse the trend of fewer companies going public. For example, according to Pitch Book, during the first six months of 2017, only 30 venture-backed companies went public, significantly fewer than the 202 venture-backed companies that went public in 2014.

Before the SEC's new policy took effect on 10 July, only certain foreign issuers and companies that qualified as emerging growth companies (EGCs) pursuant to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act could confidentially submit a registration statement for an IPO. The JOBS Act allowed EGCs – generally companies with revenues less than $1.07bn for the year prior to their IPO – to submit a draft registration statement to