Code of Alabama - Title 8: Commercial Law and Consumer Protection - Section 8-6-8 - Registration of securities - Registration statement; conditions precedent; bond; notice of action; fees; quarterly reports and financial statements; discharge from supervision

Section 8-6-8 - Registration of securities - Registration statement; conditions precedent; bond; notice of action; fees; quarterly reports and financial statements; discharge from supervision.

(a) A registration statement on securities may be filed by the issuer, any other person on whose behalf the offering is to be made, or a registered dealer. Any document filed under this article within five years preceding the filing of a registration statement may be incorporated by reference in the registration statement to the extent that the document is currently accurate. The commission may permit, by rule or otherwise, the omission of any item of information or document from any registration statement.

(b) The Securities Commission may require as a condition of registration by qualification or coordination that: (1) proceeds from the sale of the registered security be impounded until the issuer receives a specified amount, or (2) any security issued within the past three years, or to be issued, to a promoter for a consideration substantially different from the public offering price or to any person for a consideration other than cash be delivered in escrow to him or her or to some other depository satisfactory to him or her under an escrow agreement that the owners of such securities shall not be entitled to sell or transfer such securities or to withdraw such securities from escrow until all other stockholders who have paid for their stock in cash shall have been paid a dividend or dividends aggregating not less than six percent of the initial offering price shown to the satisfaction of the commission to have been actually earned on the investment in any common stock so held. The commission shall not reject a depository solely because of location in another state. In case of dissolution or insolvency during the time such securities are held in escrow, the owner of such securities shall not participate in the assets until after the owners of all other securities shall have been paid in full.

(c) The Securities Commission shall take official action on the application for registration by qualification within 60 days after the application has been filed and give written notice thereof, to the applicant or applicants. If the application is denied, the notice shall state the grounds for denial or, if action is delayed, the notice shall state the reasons for the delay.

(d) For the registration of securities there shall be paid to the Securities Commission a filing fee of $40, plus a registration fee of one tenth of one percent of the aggregate offering price of the securities which are to be offered in this state, but the registration fee shall in no case be more than one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) nor less than one hundred dollars ($100). When a registration statement is withdrawn before the effective date or a pre-effective order is entered under Section 8-6-9, the commission shall retain the filing and registration fees. An open-end management company, a face amount certificate company, or a unit investment trust, as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, may register an indefinite amount of securities under a registration statement. Such registrant, at the time of filing, shall pay the filing fee of one hundred dollars ($100) and a registration fee of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) and within 60 days after the end of each year during which its registration statement is effective, the registrant shall file a report on a form the commission, by rule, adopts, specifying its sale of securities to persons in this state during such year. Such registrant shall pay the same registration fee each year during which the registration statement remains in effect.

(e) When securities are registered, they may be offered and sold by the issuer, any other person on whose behalf they are registered, or by any registered dealer. Every registration statement is effective for one year from its effective date, or any longer period during which the security is being offered or distributed in a nonexempted transaction by or for the account of the issuer or other person on whose behalf the offering is being made or by any underwriter or dealer who is still offering part of an unsold allotment or subscription taken by him or her as a participant in the distribution, except during the time an order is in effect under Section 8-6-9. All outstanding securities of the same class as a registered security are considered to be registered for the purpose of any nonissuer transaction: (1) so long as the registration statement is effective, and (2) between the thirtieth day after the entry of any order suspending or revoking the effectiveness of the registration statement under Section 8-6-9, if the registration statement did not relate in whole or in part to a nonissuer distribution, and one year from the effective date of the registration statement. A registration statement which has become effective may not be withdrawn for a period of one year from its effective date if any securities of the same class are outstanding. A registration statement may be withdrawn otherwise only in the discretion of the commission.

(f) The Securities Commission may require the person who filed the registration statement to file reports, but not more often than quarterly, to keep reasonably current the information contained in the registration statement and to disclose the progress of the offering with respect to securities registered by coordination and notification; provided, however, that where a registration statement has been filed by a person other than the issuer or an affiliate of the issuer, the commission may require such person to file such reports on an annual basis only.

(g) Every issuer whose securities have been registered by qualification and the registration of whose securities has not been cancelled and who has not been discharged from filing further quarterly reports under the provisions of subsection (i) of this section shall file within 30 days after the close of business on December 31, March 31, June 30, and September 30 of each year and at such other reasonable times as may be required by the Securities Commission, a statement, verified under oath by some person having actual knowledge of the facts therein stated, setting forth, in such form as may be prescribed by the commission, the financial condition, the amount of assets and liabilities of such issuer on the above date and such other information as the commission may require. If any issuer subject to the provisions of this subsection shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any of the provisions of this subsection and shall continue to so fail or refuse for 30 days after notice or demand, the registration statement of the issuer's securities shall thereupon be revoked, and it shall thereafter be unlawful for any such issuer, his or her agent or agents, any dealer or salesman to sell such securities in this state.

(h) Any issuer, whose securities have been registered by qualification as provided in Section 8-6-7, who has completed the sale of the securities so registered, or who desires to discontinue the sale of said registered securities, and who desires to be discharged from further supervision of the Securities Commission or from further compliance with the Alabama securities law may file with the commission a notice in writing to such effect, and the commission may thereupon enter an order cancelling the registration of such securities; and such issuer shall thereupon be discharged from filing any financial report except as the commission may require up to and including the date of the filing of the notice as hereinabove provided. No such notice may be filed within one year after the effective date of the registration statement if any securities of the same class as those registered are outstanding.

(Acts 1959, No. 542, p. 1318, §7; Acts 1969, No. 605, p. 1093, §2; Acts 1979, No. 79-462, p. 827, §3; Acts 1990, No. 90-527, p. 772, §1; Act 2009-774, p. 2401, §1.)

Last modified: May 3, 2021