SEC Company Response from UNIVERSAL SAFETY PRODUCTS, INC. (UUU) (CIK 0000102109) (DCM) — Sep 25, 2008
UNIVERSAL SAFETY PRODUCTS, INC. (UUU) (CIK 0000102109)
Date: Sept. 25, 2008 · CIK: 0000102109 · Accession: 0001144204-08-054576
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-31747
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[USI
LETTERHEAD]
September
25, 2008
Via
EDGAR
and FEDEX
Lynn
Dicker
Reviewing
Accountant
Mail
Stop
6010
Division
of Corporate Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
100
F
Street, N.E.
Washington,
DC 20549
RE:
Universal
Security Instruments, Inc. (the “Company”)
Form
10-K for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2008
File
No. 001-31747
Dear
Ms.
Dicker:
I
am
writing to you in response to your letter of September 15, 2008, regarding
the
above referenced filing. Below are the Company’s responses to the comments
raised.
Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations
Comparison
of Results of Operations for the years ended March 31, 2008, 2007, and 2006,
page 16.
1. We
note
your comment and will revise our results of operations discussion in future
filings to quantify the effects of volume and pricing changes on our revenues
for each period presented.
Controls
and Procedures
Evaluation
of Disclosure Controls and Procedures, page 21
2. We
specifically confirm to you that our chief executive officer and chief financial
officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were
effective as of March 31, 2008 and June 30, 2008. We note your comment and
will
revise future filings to clearly indicate our conclusion on the effectiveness
of
our disclosure controls and procedures.
Lynn
Dicker
Division
of Corporation Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
September
25, 2008
Page
2
Management’s
Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, page
21
3. We
have
excluded the Canadian subsidiary from our assessment of internal control over
financial reporting. Our reason for doing so is as follows. During the fourth
quarter of our fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 (on February 11, 2008), the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice placed the assets, liabilities and dissolution
activities of the Canadian subsidiary under the control of a Court appointed
receiver. Accordingly, the Company did not have the authority to exercise
management control over the assets and liabilities or operations of the Canadian
subsidiary. Financial information included in our filing was obtained from
the
Court appointed receiver and was not subject to the Company’s internal controls
over financial reporting.
4. In
addition to management’s review of internal control over financial reporting we
engaged certified public accountants, other than our independent auditor, as
a
consultant to review our system of internal control over financial reporting.
This consultant was also engaged to review the system of internal control over
financial reporting at our Canadian subsidiary; however, this portion of the
engagement was eliminated when the Canadian subsidiary was placed into
receivership. Our conclusion, based on our and our consultant’s assessment of
the internal controls over financial reporting of
our continuing operations,
as
further discussed in 5 below, was that there are mitigating controls in place
that offset the risk that a material error would not be detected in the
preparation of our consolidated financial statements. Accordingly, management
concluded that, except with respect to our Canadian subsidiary, the Company’s
internal control over financial reporting was effective as of March 31,
2008.
5. We
note
your comment and respectfully request that further disclosure be included in
future filings. In connection therewith, we hereby advise the Staff as follows:
§
The
consolidated financial statements and related disclosures in our
March 31,
2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K separated the assets, liabilities,
and
continuing operations of the Company from the assets, liabilities
and
discontinued operations of the Canadian subsidiary. Accordingly,
we
endeavored to differentiate our review and conclusions relating to
the
internal controls over financial reporting of the continuing operations
from those of our discontinued operations.
§
The
disclosures regarding certain material weaknesses in internal control
over
financial reporting and income tax issues relate to our discontinued
Canadian subsidiary as previously discussed in 3 and 4 above. The
operations of the Canadian subsidiary were halted during the fourth
quarter of our fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 when the assets,
liabilities, and dissolution activities were placed under the direction
of
a Court appointed receiver.
Lynn
Dicker
Division
of Corporation Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
September
25, 2008
Page
3
§
Inasmuch
as the dissolution of our Canadian subsidiary is complete and any
uncertainty regarding the ultimate realization of assets and disposition
of liabilities, including tax items, has been substantially removed,
there
can be no remediation of the material weaknesses related to those
operations.
§
In
light of the fact that the ultimate realization of assets has been
determined to be correct as reported in our filing and that the Canadian
subsidiary is dissolved and will not be consolidated in future filings,
we
respectfully request that you reconsider the need to revise our filing
to
clarify these issues.
§
It
is our intention to provide a final detailed summary of the dissolution
of
the Canadian subsidiary in the quarter in which our auditor concurs
that
the dissolution is complete which we expect to be in the quarter
ended
September 30, 2008 or December 31,
2008.
§
The
lack of segregation of duties at the Company’s offices does not rise to
the level of material weakness, and the Company’s position with respect to
the lack of segregation of duties is set forth in Item 9A of the
Annual
Report.
6. For
all
the reasons stated above, management has concluded that our disclosure controls
and procedures were effective as of March 31, 2008 and June 30,
2008.
Financial
Statements
Report
Of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm, page
F-1
7. The
opinion included was erroneously the statutory opinion. The audit opinion which
our auditors intended to be included in our filing was in accordance with
standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (US). An amended
filing will be made which includes the correct opinion of Grant Thornton -
Hong
Kong.
Consolidated
Balance Sheets, page F-2
8. We
note
your comment and will revise future filings to separately present accounts
receivable and accounts payable in the balance sheet as required. However,
we
believe the presentation of a breakout in the cost of goods sold section on
the
statement of operations would be less meaningful to the reader. Accordingly,
we
respectfully request that this disclosure be done in an accompanying note to
the
financial statements.
Consolidated
Statements of Shareholders’ Equity, page F-4
9. The
tax
benefit of $1,029,189 related to the exercise of employee stock options
exercised during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 is calculated as follows.
Total option proceeds to the Company for all shares exercised during the fiscal
year ended March 31, 2007 amounted to approximately $585,000. The aggregate
market value of the exercised shares on the dates the options were exercised
amounted to approximately $3,851,000. The difference of $3,266,000 ($3,851,000
-
$585,000) represents an employment related expense for federal and state income
tax purposes. The tax benefit of $1,029,189 is the result obtained by
multiplying the $3,266,000 deduction by our effective tax rate for the
year.
Lynn
Dicker
Division
of Corporation Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
September
25, 2008
Page
4
Discontinued
Operations, page F-8
10. The
consolidated asset impairment loss included a write down of inventories, trade
accounts receivable, and other assets to their net realizable valve, in addition
to the write down of property, plant and equipment and the write down of
goodwill. Specifically, the impairment loss recorded on the books of the
Canadian subsidiary included the following:
Property
plant and equipment
$3,800,000
Goodwill
2,100,000
Inventory
1,700,000
Accounts
receivable
500,000
Costs
of disposal
900,000
Total
$9,000,000
We
note
your comment and will describe and disclose the composition of the asset
impairment loss in our future filings.
Note
C- Investment in the Hong Kong Joint Venture, page
F-11
11. The
Company has reviewed the scope exemptions in paragraph 4 of FIN 46(R),
specifically paragraph 4h, and based on an evaluation of the four criteria
contained in paragraph 4h, we believe that the appropriate method of accounting
for its interest in the Hong Kong Joint Venture is the equity method for the
following reasons.
§
The
Hong Kong Joint Venture is a joint venture, owned 50% by each of
the
Company and its venture partner.
§
A
majority of the voting seats on the board of directors of the Hong
Kong
Joint Venture are controlled permanently by our venture partner,
our
venture partner operates the Hong Kong Joint Venture and serves as
the
managing partner, exercising full operating control of the joint
venture.
§
The
Hong Kong Joint Venture manufacturers, distributes and sells product
to
both the Company and to other customers. The Hong Kong Joint Venture
was
not designed so that substantially all of its activities either involve
or
are conducted on behalf of the Company and its related
parties.
§
While
the Hong Kong Joint Venture’s sales to the Company increased from 46% of
the joint venture’s total sales in fiscal 2007 to approximately 69% in
fiscal 2008, it is anticipated that the joint venture’s sales to other
customers will increase as a percentage in future periods. A combination
of the following circumstances caused the current
increase:
Lynn
Dicker
Division
of Corporation Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
September
25, 2008
Page
5
o
The
Hong Kong Joint Ventures sales to all customers slowed during the
2008
fiscal year to $30,144,148 from $41,151,055 in the prior year, a
decrease
of 26.75%
o
As
the Hong Kong Joint Venture’s sales to others declined, sales to the
Company increased significantly due to the Company’s sales to a large
national retailer that represents a new customer to the
Company.
§
The
Company has not provided more than half of the Hong Kong Joint Venture’s
equity or other financing.
12. We
note
your comment and will revise future filings to reconcile the carrying value
of
the investment in the Hong Kong Joint Venture to the summarized financial
information presented in our financial statements.
Note
E - Credit Facility, page F-12
13. We
included the disclosure requirements of FIN 45 paragraph 13 in Note A - Nature
of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies under the heading
“Discontinued
Operations”
and
elsewhere in our filing and in previous filings. However, we note your comment
and will include this disclosure in the note covering our “Credit
Facility”
in
future filings.
Note
H - Shareholder’ Equity, page F-14
14. We
note
your comment and will revise future filings to provide a description of the
methods used to determine the significant assumptions utilized within the
Black-Scholes option valuation model.
Exhibit
99.1
The
Joint Venture Financial Statements - Eyston Company
Limited
15. We
acknowledge the guidance of Rule 3-09(b) of Regulation S-X. The audited
statements for March 31, 2006 of the Hong Kong joint venture have been included
in previous filings. We respectfully request that the third historical year
of
the Hong Kong Joint Venture be included in future filings of the Company’s Form
10-K.
16. The
opinion included was erroneously the statutory opinion. The audit opinion
covered both years. An amended filing will be made which includes the correct
opinion of Grant Thornton - Hong Kong.
Lynn
Dicker
Division
of Corporation Finance
Securities
and Exchange Commission
September
25, 2008
Page
6
Independent
Auditors’ report, page JV-1
17. The
opinion included was erroneously the statutory opinion. The audit opinion was
in
accordance with standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
(US).
An amended filing will be made which includes the correct opinion of Grant
Thornton - Hong Kong.
Independent
Auditors’ Report, page JV-1
18. We
acknowledge the comment and will revise future filings to clearly disclose
in
the Joint Venture’s financial statements that there are no material reconciling
items between HKFRS and US GAAP.
Note
3. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, page
JV-10
19. The
Hong
Kong