Types of Issuers
Registering securities with the SEC is always a long, laborious process. But how laborious can depend a lot on the type of issuer. Large companies that have issued securities previously will have a much easier time registering their securities than smaller companies that are registering securities for the first time. There are five different kinds of issuers that you will need to know about for the exam.
A Well-Known Seasoned Issuer (WKSI) is a very large company that has registered securities with the SEC in the past. Specifically, a WKSI is defined as a company with either of the following properties:
- • Worldwide public float (not held by affiliates) of at least $700 million in common equity, OR
- • $1 billion in non-convertible debt issued in the past three years
There are several advantages to being a WKSI. Probably the most important advantage is that WKSIs can file their registration statements on the much abbreviated S-3 Form. Rather than several hundred man hours of work going into preparing the registration statement, there may simply be a few hundred. WKSIs can also file an automatic shelf registration statement. This kind of registration stateme