SEC Company Response from ASCENDANT SOLUTIONS INC (CIK 0001080029) — Jul 8, 2005
ASCENDANT SOLUTIONS INC (CIK 0001080029)
Date: July 8, 2005 · CIK: 0001080029 · Accession: 0001080029-05-000007
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: June 27, 2005
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Response to SEC Comment Letter of June 27, 2005
Ascendant
Solutions, Inc.
16250
Dallas Parkway, Suite 205
Dallas,
Texas 75248
July
8,
2005
Mr.
Jorge
Bonilla
Mr.
Wilson K. Lee
Division
of Corporation Finance
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
100
F
Street N.E.
Washington,
D.C. 20549
Re:
Ascendant
Solutions, Inc.
Form
10-K for the year ended 12/31/2004 (“Original Form 10-K”)
Filed
3/29/2005
Form
10-Q for the period ended 3/31/2005 (“Form 10-Q”)
Filed
5/12/2005
File
Nos. 0-27945
Dear
Messrs. Bonilla and Lee:
This
letter sets forth responses of Ascendant Solutions, Inc. (the “Company”) to the
comment letter dated June 27, 2005 from the staff of the Securities and
Exchange
Commission (the “Commission”). Please note that the following responses are
keyed to coincide with your comment letter.
FORM
10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2004
Financial
Statements and Notes
Note
1
- Organization and Significant Accounting Policies
Significant
Accounting Policies
Basis
of Presentation, page 46
1.
Response: In determining whether the Company has significant influence
over
operations for purposes of applying its consolidation policy, management
of the
Company considers its participation in the following operating activities:
day
to day business affairs and operating decisions of the investee, financing
decisions, participation on the board of directors or other management
committees, acquisition or sale of assets, approval or other consent rights
with
respect to investee activities and guarantees of the investee’s debt. As is
general practice for disclosure of consolidation policies by other public
companies, the Company does not separately disclose detailed considerations
in
determining “significant influence”, as these factors may differ from
transaction to transaction depending on specific circumstances.
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
July
8,
2005
Page
2
The
Company consolidated Fairways Frisco, L.P. (Fairways Frisco) on December
31,
2004 because it owned 100% of the limited partnership interests on that
date.
The Company made its investment of $ 154,000 in Fairways Frisco on December
31,
2004. The table on pages 45-46 of the Form 10-K is intended to show that
Fairways Frisco holds a 50% interest in the Frisco Square Partnerships,
as
further discussed in Note 2 on pages 54-56 of the Form 10-K. The Company’s
decision to consolidate Fairways Frisco on December 31, 2004 was based
on its
100% ownership of the Fairways Frisco limited partnership interests and
the
guidance provided in SFAS
94, Consolidation of All Majority-Owned Subsidiaries, paragraph
2
which
sets forth the general rule of consolidation policy as:
“the
usual condition for a controlling financial interest is ownership of a
majority
voting interest, and, therefore, as a general rule ownership by one company,
directly or indirectly, of over fifty percent of the outstanding voting
shares
of another company is a condition pointing toward
consolidation.”
The
Company did not consolidate the Frisco Square Partnerships based on its
analysis
of the requirements of FIN 46 (R) at December 31, 2004.
Fairways
Frisco Partnerships, pages 54-56
2.
Response: As discussed in the response to Question #1 above, the Company
owned
100% of the Fairways Frisco interests at December 31, 2004. As a result,
the
provisions of paragraph 5 of FIN 46(R) were not applicable.
However,
the Company did consider the provisions of paragraph
5 of FIN 46 (R), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities,
in
preparing its March 31, 2005 financial statements filed on Form 10-Q since
it no
longer owned 100% of the limited partnership interests of Fairways Frisco.
Among
the considerations were the following:
1)
The
equity holders participate pro-rata with their limited partnership
interests in the income and losses of Fairways Frisco;
2)
All
of the limited partners voting rights are pro-rata with their
equity
interests;
3)
The
equity investment at risk is sufficient for Fairways Frisco to
carry out
its business activities; and
4)
The
Company is not obligated to make any further capital contributions
to
Fairways Frisco and it does not guarantee any of the debt obligations
of
Fairways Frisco or any of the related Frisco Square Partnerships.
Considering
these factors and the fact that other participants guarantee debt, Fairways
Frisco is not considered a variable interest entity under paragraph
5 of FIN 46 (R). If
Fairways Frisco was determined to be a variable interest entity, the Company
would not absorb a majority of the entity’s losses or receive a majority of
expected residual returns, or both, and thus per paragraph
14 of FIN 46 (R),
would
not consolidate Fairways Frisco. Based on these considerations, the Company
determined that it was not required to consolidate Fairways Frisco at March
31,
2005 under the provisions of FIN
46 (R).
3.
Response: The information presented in the table on page 56 is correctly
dated
as of March 21, 2005. The Company intends to file Amendment No. 1 to Form
10-K
for the year ended 12/31/04 on Form 10-K/A reflecting a revised date on
the
accountants’ opinion.
Note
9
- Investment In Limited Partnerships
4.
Response: The Company’s investment income for the year ended December 31, 2004
is primarily derived from its interests in Fairways 03 New Jersey, L.P.,
Ampco
Partners, Ltd. and Fairways 36864, L.P. The Company does not consider any
of
these entities to be material to its overall financial position or results
of
operations for the reasons outlined below, including consideration of
Rule
3-09 of Regulation S-X.
The
Company’s calculation of significant subsidiaries under Regulation
S-X Rule 3-09
shows
that all three of the entities referred to in the preceding paragraph represent
less than 10% of the first and third conditions (investment test and pretax
income test) required to be calculated under that rule. As a result, the
Company
did not present separate financial statements or summarized financial
information for these entities. Investment income for 2004, from individual
investments and in the aggregate is less than 10% of the Company’s average
pretax earnings for the past five years. Since the Company incurred losses
in
each of the past five years, except for 2004, the Company used the absolute
values of pretax earnings, as allowed under the Interpretations
to Rule 3-09 of Regulation S-X, and also in the SEC Accounting Disclosure
Rules
and Practices Official Text Topic Two (III.B.1) and Topic Two
(I.D.1.c).
Under
this calculation, the Company used the absolute value of $7,656,000 as
its
average pretax income for purposes of the pretax income test under Rule
3-09 of Regulation S-X.
In
addition to the calculations under Rule
3-09(a),
the
Company considered the additional following factors in its decision to
not
present additional financial information:
1)
Investment
income was less than 1% of consolidated revenue;
2)
The
total assets and revenues of the individual limited partnership
entities
is less than 20% of the Company’s consolidated assets and revenues;
3)
Two
of the interests in limited partnerships represent limited partnership
investments in single tenant commercial real estate properties
and have no
substantive business operations;
4)
There
was no material change in the nature of the Company’s interest in these
entities as compared to the prior year;
5)
The
sole real estate property held by certain partnerships in which
Fairways
03 New Jersey, LP has its investment interest is under contract
to be
sold, and it has already received an earnest money deposit of
approximately 1% of the sales price. Upon completion of this
transaction
in 2005, the proceeds will be distributed to the limited partners
and
Fairways 03 New Jersey LP will have no remaining significant
assets or
future sources of income; and
6)
The
income from Fairways 36864, LP is due to one transaction whereby
a single
tenant commercial real estate property was developed and sold
and the
proceeds were distributed to the limited partners, leaving Fairways
36864
LP with no significant assets or future sources of income.
The
Company believes these additional factors support its position that providing
additional financial information on its limited partnership investees will
not
provide any additional useful information for readers of the financial
statements.
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
July
8,
2005
Page
3
Based
on
the results of the tests in Rule
3-09(a),
the
Company did not consider its investments in these entities, either individually
or in the aggregate, to be material to its financial position or results
of
operations, and thus did not provide the summarized financial information
referred to in paragraph
20 (d) of APB 18, The Equity Method of Accounting for Investments in Common
Stock.
FORM
10-Q FOR THE QUARTER ENDED MARCH 31, 2005
Note
2
- Description of Business
Significant
Accounting Policies
Investments
in Limited Partnerships, page 6
5.
Response: In determining whether to use the cost method or the equity method
to
account for its investment in Fairways Frisco, the Company considered factors
in
addition to the percentage amount of its limited partnership interest.
AICPA
Statement of Position 78-9, Accounting for Investments in Real Estate Ventures
(SOP 78-9), paragraph 8
allows
the cost method to be utilized for investments in limited partnerships
where:
“the
investment amount is minor and the investor has virtually no influence
over
operating and financial policies. Such limited partner is, in substance,
in the
same position with respect to the investment as an investor that owns a
minor
common stock interest in a corporation. In such cases, the cost method
may be
appropriate”.
Further,
the Company considered the provisions of EITF
Topic D-46, Accounting for Limited Partnership Investments,
which
requires all investments in limited partnerships to be accounted for in
accordance with SOP
78-9.
The
guidance in EITF
Topic D-46
also
states:
“the
SEC staff understands that practice generally has viewed investments of
more
than 3 to 5 percent to be more than minor”.
The
Company does not consider the ownership of more than 3 to 5% to be an absolute
requirement to use the equity method, as further discussed in the following
paragraph.
Based
on
the guidance above, the Company considered the following additional factors
in
determining whether to use the cost or equity method to account for its
interest
in Fairways Frisco:
1)
The
Company has no influence over the operations, property design
&
development, property leasing, financial policies, or any other
business
of the partnership;
2)
The
Company also considered that its investment is in a real estate
development entity that is not expected to make any distributions
to its
limited partners for the foreseeable future;
3)
The
Company is not obligated to make any further capital contributions
to
Fairways Frisco, nor has the Company guaranteed any of the debt
obligations of Fairways Frisco or the related Frisco Square Partnerships;
and
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
July
8,
2005
Page
4
4)
The
Company owns less than 10% of the limited part