The events of 2020 have raised plenty of compliance issues within the equity markets including the explosion of retail activity, day-to-day event driven volatility and the influx of COVID-19/health care sector securities. They have also highlighted an issue that has often been overlooked during more sanguine markets – the large number of ‘Low Priced Securities’ (LPS) on U.S. exchanges. Continue reading “Quantifying Listed Low Price Security Risk – Small Cap Compliance Risk Scoring”
Wall Street vs. Main Street – the discussion of the differences between the two is age-old. Throughout this COVID-19 Pandemic, OTC Markets Group has seen America’s community banks step up to support the small businesses in their local communities by providing loans and other much needed financial support. Continue reading “Today’s State of the Community Banking Market: Five Topics Being Discussed Among Bankers”
It is a common misconception that going public on the Pink market is a low cost, efficient way to gain visibility for your company, and in turn, establish liquidity. However, when you dig a little deeper, you find that cheaper is not always better and that it can add substantially more cost in the long run. Regardless of your goals in the public markets, there are key factors including transparency, public perception and tradability that should be considered when evaluating your options. Continue reading “Before You Go Public on Pink”
Over the last ten years, private investors with significant personal wealth have grown in their prominence as a bona fide investor class. Unburdened by the mandates and time constraints of a typical private equity fund, these investors have also become a highly coveted resource for growing companies. Regardless of their AUM, location, generational heritage or industry focus, you can rest assured that these investors want to invest not only from their pocketbooks but also from their experience. Our firm works with a large and growing number of family offices interested in high-quality, curated deal flow and is frequently counseling issuers on how to present themselves to family offices. In this post we will cover the basics of a family office, their motivations for investing and how they write checks in cash and experience. Continue reading ““What Attracts a Family Office to Your Offering?””
In my most recent blog post, Capital Raising During Times of Uncertainty—Issuers Beware!, I discussed the issues facing small and micro-cap companies as they confront critical funding issues and the heightened need to secure growth capital. The companies that do all the right things and provide quality disclosure deserve a public market that provides a mechanism for investment funding to keep their businesses going. However, some may still fall victim to bad actors. We cautioned issuers to beware of “too good to be true” financings with terms that dump shares, dilute shareholder value and destroy companies. Continue reading “Investors Be Alert—“Penny Stocks” Can also Trade on Exchanges”
The SEC’s proposed amendments to Rule 15c2-11 focus on ways to incentivize additional company disclosure in the public markets. While we strongly support the overall goals of the proposed amendments to increase information availability for investors, we are mindful that this rule has far reaching implications that will reduce market efficiency in certain areas. Continue reading “Exploring the Investor Impact of an SEC Rule Proposal”
As the public market for thousands of early stage and growth companies, OTC Markets Group has seen the good, the hard and the plain ugly when it comes to what happens after a capital raising. Even in the best of economic times, issuers often fall prey to bad advisors offering “too good to be true” financings with terms that dump shares, dilute shareholder value and destroy companies. Continue reading “Capital Raising During Times of Uncertainty — Issuers Beware!”
During the Great Recession, commercial real estate (CRE) lending practices were heavily scrutinized and considered to be a leading factor of economic downturn. As a result, bank concentrations in CRE are assumed to be a strong predictor of bank failures.
Over a decade later, rising bank CRE lending concentration levels accompanied by historically high CRE prices have many economists convinced that regulations need to be revisited so history doesn’t repeat itself. As they debate whether or not current CRE lending practices are an accurate prognosticator, recent Qaravan data tells a far more nuanced story. Continue reading “Are CRE Concentrations Still a Financial Crisis Prognosticator?”
As guidance from the World Health Organization continues to evolve, many organizations and businesses are encouraging remote work and limiting travel as a way to help protect their teams.
With more and more conferences and company road shows being cancelled daily, we are seeing an increased interest from issuers, conference organizers, investment banks and IR firms looking for an alternative approach to help their companies continue to execute their IR strategy.
One solution that is gaining traction is our Virtual Investor Conference series. This 100% Virtual event platform gives company executives the ability to present live to a global audience of investors directly from their headquarters or home office.
Continue reading “Navigating Investor Engagement in the Wake of Travel Restrictions”
