SEC Company Response from ASCENDANT SOLUTIONS INC (CIK 0001080029) — Nov 7, 2005
ASCENDANT SOLUTIONS INC (CIK 0001080029)
Date: Nov. 7, 2005 · CIK: 0001080029 · Accession: 0001080029-05-000018
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: June 27, 2005
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SEC Comment Letter - Response dated 11-7-05
Ascendant
Solutions, Inc.
16250
Dallas Parkway, Suite 205
Dallas,
Texas 75248
November
7, 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 October 12 , 2005, from the staff of the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “Commission”), in response to the Company’s letter of
July 8, 2005 which responded to the original comment letter dated June 27,
2005
from the Commission. Please note that the following responses are keyed to
coincide with your October 12, 2005 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:
The Company applies the guidance set forth in SFAS
94
and
SOP
78-9
as its
policy in consolidating majority-owned or controlled entities. As of December
31, 2004 and March 31, 2005, the Company owned greater than 50% of the
outstanding stock or limited partnership interests in all of the Company’s
consolidated subsidiaries. As such, the provisions of SFAS
94
and
SOP
78-9
for
determining control of less than 50% owned entities was not applicable in
determining the Company’s consolidated subsidiaries.
2.
Response: The Company owned 100% of the limited partnership interests of
Fairways Frisco at December 31, 2004. In accordance with the provisions of
SOP
78-9,
the
Company consolidated Fairways Frisco at December 31, 2004 as it owned greater
than 50% of the limited partnership interests.
-1-
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
November
7, 2005
Fairways
Frisco Partnerships, pages 54-56
3.
Response: The Company did consider the provisions of paragraph
5 of FIN 46 (R), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities,
in
preparing its December 31, 2004 financial statements filed on Form 10-K to
determine if the Frisco Square Partnerships were required to be consolidated.
The considerations at December 31, 2004 included the following:
1)
Cole
McDowell (the controlling member of Five Star Group) guaranteed all
of the
bank debt of the Frisco Square Partnerships. The outstanding bank
debt was
approximately $31 million at December 31, 2004. Cole McDowell was
not
affiliated with Fairways Frisco or the Company. Neither the Company
nor
Fairways Frisco (including any of its principals) had guaranteed
any of
the bank debt of the Frisco Square
Partnerships
2)
The
Five Star Group had a preference of $2.5 million on distributable
cash
flow.
3)
After
the preference, the equity holders would participate pro-rata with
their
limited partnership interests in the income and losses of the Frisco
Square Partnerships;
4)
Fairways
Frisco’s equity commitment at risk on December 31, 2004 was approximately
$154,000.
5)
The
capital contributed to the Frisco Square Partnerships by Cole McDowell
and/or the Five Star Group exceeded the capital contributed by Fairways
Frisco.
In
accordance with paragraphs
14-15 of FIN 46 (R),
the
Company determined that Cole McDowell and the Five Star Group were the primary
beneficiary of the variable interests of the Frisco Square Partnerships at
December 31, 2004, and thus the Frisco Square Partnerships would be consolidated
into the Five Star Group and not into Fairways Frisco.
4.
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.
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: The Company does not consider the ownership of more than 3 to 5%
to be
an absolute requirement to use the equity method in cases where the Company
does
not exercise significant influence or control over operations or financial
policies of the limited partnership.
-2-
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
November
7, 2005
The
Company notes the following SEC registrants indicate in various filings their
ownership of greater than 5% interest in limited partnerships which are
accounted for under the cost method:
Registrant
Limited
Partnership % Owned
Filing
Reference
American
Physicians Capital, Inc
Various
Form
10-K filed on 3/16/05
Interstate
Hotels & Resorts
Various
Form
10-K filed on 3/27/03
MDC
Partners Inc
Various
Form
10-K filed on 4/18/05
Invacare
Corp
Various
Form
10-K filed on 3/11/05
Harrell
Hospitality Group Inc.
7%
Form
10-KSB filed 1/20/99
As
noted
in our previous response dated July 8, 2005, the Company expects its limited
partnership interest to decline due to the addition of other third party limited
partners that will provide the majority of the equity capital contributions
to
Fairways Frisco. The Company believes it is likely that its limited partnership
interest will fall below 5% within the next 12 months as a result of the
dilution from additional capital contributions.
The
Company feels that revising its financial statements to reflect the equity
method of accounting for its investment in Fairways Frisco, only to switch
back
to the cost method within the next 12 months would make a complex transaction
that much more difficult for readers of its financial statements to understand.
Further, the administrative costs and burden to change accounting methods twice
in a short period of time would put an unnecessary strain on the Company’s
limited resources as a small public entity.
Since
its
initial investment in Fairways Frisco, the Company has known that it would
contribute a limited dollar amount of capital and that its ultimate position
as
a limited partner would be minor. The economic substance of this transaction
supports the cost method, whereas the form of entity invested in by the Company
is the primary suggesting factor for using the equity method.
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
4)
The
Company owns less than 10% of the limited partnership interests of
the
Frisco Square Partnerships (indirectly through Fairways Frisco).
The
Frisco Square Partnerships are the entities that own the real estate
assets being developed and managed by the general partner (in which
the
Company has no ownership interest) of Fairways Frisco.
-3-
Jorge
Bonilla
Wilson
K.
Lee
November
7, 2005
Additionally,
the Company hereby makes the following representations and
acknowledgements:
A. The
Company represents that it is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of
the
disclosure in its Form 10-K Filings and Form 10-Q Filings;
B. The
Company acknowledges that staff comments or changes to disclosure in response
to
staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with
respect to the Form 10-K Filings and Form 10-Q Filings; and
C. The
Company acknowledges that it may not assert staff comments as a defense in
any
proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal
securities laws of the United States.
Please
contact me with any additional information requests or further comments with
respect to the 10-K Filings and Form 10-Q that you might have.
Sincerely
yours,
Ascendant
Solutions, Inc.
By:
/s/
Gary W. Boyd
Gary
W. Boyd
Vice
President-Finance and Chief Financial Officer
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