SEC Company Response from Calamos Asset Management, — Oct 1, 2004
Calamos Asset Management, Inc. /DE/ (CIK 0001299033)
Date: Oct. 1, 2004 · CIK: 0001299033 · Accession: 0000950123-04-011629
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 333-117847
Referenced dates: September 24, 2004, September 24, 2004
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CALAMOS ASSET MANAGEMENT, INC.
October 1, 2004
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
Mr. William Friar
Senior Financial Analyst
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20549
Calamos Asset Management, Inc.
File No. 333-117847
Responses to SEC Comment Letter dated September 24, 2004
Dear Mr. Friar:
On behalf of Calamos Asset Management, Inc. (the "Company"), set
forth below are the comments of the staff of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the "Commission") received in your letter dated September 24, 2004
relating to Amendment No. 1 ("Amendment No. 1") to the Company's registration
statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-117847) filed on August 2, 2004 (as amended
to date, the "Registration Statement"), including the prospectus contained
therein (the "Prospectus"). Each comment is followed by the Company's response
to that comment. Capitalized terms used but not defined herein have the meanings
assigned to them in the Registration Statement.
This letter should be read in conjunction with the accompanying
Amendment No. 2 to the Registration Statement ("Amendment No. 2"), which the
Company filed with the Commission on the date hereof. In this letter, all page
references set forth in the Company's responses to the staff's comments refer to
page numbers in Amendment No. 2. To assist the staff in reviewing Amendment No.
2, we are delivering, by overnight mail to Mr. Clampitt, a copy of this letter
and eight bound copies of Amendment No. 2. Four of the copies of Amendment No. 2
have been marked to show changes from the Amendment No. 1.
By its responses herein and in Amendment No. 2, the Company believes
that it has addressed all of the comments of the staff of the Commission. The
Company is aware of its obligations under the Securities Act and will request in
writing an acceleration of the effective date of the Registration Statement. At
such time, the Company will, pursuant to the staff's
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Mr. William Friar
October 1, 2004
Page 2
request, furnish a letter acknowledging the matters specified in the bullet
points included in the introductory paragraphs of your letter dated September
24, 2004.
General
1. The Company's failure to include key information in this amendment,
such as the number of shares being sold, a pricing range for their
sale, the percentage of the Company being sold, the cost to
terminate EAU Plan, no final management services agreement, no
future employment agreements with the senior managers and twenty-two
missing exhibits may result in the staff requiring significant time
after the filing of the next amendment to provide you with our
comments, and we may have significant comments and there may be many
of them pertaining to any part of the registration statement.
The Company acknowledges the staff's comment and has included most
of the key information requested by the staff, as well as most of
the missing exhibits.
2. The current disclosures do not appear to address the distribution of
current profits. Please revise the summary to indicate under
"Reorganization" how it will be determined who is entitled to the
current profits, i.e., profits in the year in which the
reorganization occurs.
The Company advises the staff that the stockholders of Calamos
Family Partners, Inc. will be entitled to all net profits of Calamos
Family Partners, Inc. recognized prior to the Reorganization. Net
profits or losses of Calamos Holdings LLC recognized from and after
the consummation of the Reorganization will be allocated to the
members of Calamos Holdings LLC pro rata in accordance with the
percentages of their respective equity interests. The Company has
revised the disclosure on page 3 of the Prospectus to include this
information.
Summary
Our Company
3. Revise the narrative after the penultimate paragraph to indicate the
Company initiated paying supplemental compensation payments to
selling agents and the date when that activity began. In addition,
disclose the aggregate compensation paid to selling agents in the
years ended December 31, 2001, December 31, 2003 and the period
ending June 30, 2004 as well as the portion that was supplemental
compensation during each of these periods.
The Company submits that, because its supplemental compensation
payments to third-party selling agents have been immaterial and
declining as a percentage of assets under management and revenues
and were not a contributing factor to the growth of the Company's
assets under management, a discussion of such payments is not
sufficiently material to investors in the Company's Class A
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Mr. William Friar
October 1, 2004
Page 3
common stock to warrant including such a discussion in the "Summary"
section of the Prospectus. However, in response to the staff's
request, the Company has disclosed on page 46 of the Prospectus when
it first began making supplemental compensation payments. The
Company supplementally advises the staff that it did not initiate
these payments; rather the Company began making them at the request
of third-party selling agents. In addition, in response to the
staff's request, the Company has disclosed in MD&A in each
period-to-period discussion of operating expenses the amount of
supplemental compensation payments paid to third-party selling
agents (please see pages 51, 55 and 57 of the Prospectus). The
Company supplementally advises the staff that each period-to-period
discussion already quantifies distribution expense, which represents
payments (other than supplemental compensation payments) to
third-party selling agents for selling, underwriting, servicing and
administering the mutual funds managed by the Company. The Company
does not believe that aggregating distribution expense with
supplemental compensation expenses (which is a component of
marketing and sales promotion expense) would be meaningful to
investors and therefore has not presented these amounts on an
aggregate basis as requested by the staff.
Reorganization
4. With regard to your previous response number 9, please reconcile
your answer that the Calamos Family Partners will not derive any
revenues from the Company with the disclosure that the Company will
lease the future headquarters from Calamos Family Partners as well
as the yet to be filed Exhibit 10.9 (Management Services Agreement).
If Calamos Family Partners will derive future revenues from the
Company, provide disclosures of the nature and expected dollar
amounts of such revenues.
The Company confirms to the staff that it does not expect Calamos
Family Partners, Inc. to derive any revenues from the Company. The
Company advises the staff that, as disclosed on page 2 of the
Prospectus in the second paragraph under "Summary - Reorganization,"
pursuant to the Real Estate Distribution in June 2004, Calamos
Family Partners, Inc. distributed to its stockholders its interest
in all of its real estate assets, including the Company's existing
corporate headquarters. The stockholders of Calamos Family Partners,
Inc. thereafter contributed the real estate assets distributed to
them to a new limited liability company, Calamos Property Holdings
LLC, formed by them. That limited liability company is owned
directly by the stockholders of Calamos Family Partners, Inc. It is
not a subsidiary of Calamos Family Partners, Inc., and Calamos
Family Partners, Inc. has no ownership interest, direct or indirect,
in Calamos Property Holdings LLC.
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Mr. William Friar
October 1, 2004
Page 4
Upon consummation of the offering, the Company expects to lease its
existing headquarters from a subsidiary of Calamos Property Holdings
LLC, and the Company also expects to lease its new headquarters,
upon completion thereof, from a subsidiary of Calamos Property
Holdings LLC. Calamos Family Partners, Inc. will not derive any
revenues from the Company's lease payments to a subsidiary of
Calamos Property Holdings LLC because Calamos Family Partners, Inc.
has no ownership interest in Calamos Property Holdings LLC or any of
its subsidiaries.
The Company further advises the staff that all payments expected to
be made under the Management Services Agreement will be made by
Calamos Family Partners, Inc. to the Company as consideration for
services provided by the Company. Calamos Family Partners, Inc.
therefore will not derive revenues from the Company pursuant to this
agreement.
The Offering
Use of Proceeds
5. We note your response that the Company plans to spend $30 million
for equipping the new headquarters prior to moving in mid-2005.
Please advise us why this is not a partial use of the proceeds from
this offering. In addition, please disclose the other expected
working capital uses.
The Company confirms to the staff that it does not expect to use any
of the proceeds of the offering to equip its new headquarters prior
to moving in mid-2005. The Company currently has and, even if it did
not consummate the offering, would expect to continue to have
sufficient cash on hand to equip its new headquarters. The Company
expects to use that cash, and not proceeds of the offering, for that
purpose.
The Company advises the staff that it currently is not able to
identify specific working capital purposes for which it may use
proceeds of the offering. The Company therefore has deleted from
pages 6 and 27 of the Prospectus references to working capital
as a potential use of proceeds and has revised the disclosure under
"Use of Proceeds" on page 27 to add more detail about the expected
use of proceeds.
Related to Our Industry
Our business and operations...
6. Revise the first narrative to use the penultimate sentence in the
first paragraph as the caption. In addition, delete the broad
discussion of how the Company is regulated to instead discuss the
various material proposed or recently enacted regulations that have
or could materially effect the business model of the Company. In
addition, the Company's response did not address the question as
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Mr. William Friar
October 1, 2004
Page 5
to whether or not any clients or company personnel "engaged in" any
late trading or market timing activities. If so, please advise us of
the details.
The Company has revised the first risk factor on page 12 of the
Prospectus to use the penultimate sentence of the first paragraph as
the caption for the risk factor.
Pursuant to discussions with the staff, the Company has not revised
the risk factor in response to the second sentence of the staff's
comment, but instead has added disclosure on page 12 of the
Prospectus discussing indemnification for past violations of
applicable laws and regulations.
The Company supplementally advises the staff that it has policies
and procedures to prevent and detect late trading and short-term,
frequent trading. These policies and procedures include, among other
things, redemption fees, multi-layer reviews and exchange
limitations.
With regard to late-trading, the Company is unaware of any
shareholders that have been permitted to late-trade any shares of
the open-end funds managed by the Company. All orders for purchases,
redemptions or exchanges placed directly with the open-end funds
must be received prior to the close of regular session trading on
the New York Stock Exchange to receive that day's net asset value.
Shares of open-end funds managed by the Company may be purchased,
redeemed or exchanged through third-party selling agents. A
third-party selling agent who accepts such orders as agent of the
open-end funds must process those orders at the net asset value next
determined after the receipt of the order. Although the Company
cannot state with absolute certainty that no third-party selling
agent has accepted a late-trade, the Company's contracts with
third-party selling agents require that they adhere to the open-end
fund's prohibition against late-trading, and the Company has no
knowledge that any third-party selling agent has placed a late trade
order with any open-end funds managed by the Company.
With respect to short-term, frequent trading, the prospectuses of
the open-end funds managed by the Company state, "The Funds are
intended for long-term investment purposes only, and are not
intended for short-term or excessive trading. These practices may
disrupt portfolio management strategies and may increase expenses,
and thus harm fund performance." The prospectuses further state that
each "Fund may, in its discretion, suspend, and may permanently
terminate, the trading or exchange privileges of any investor who
engages in trading activity that it believes would be disruptive to
the Fund." The open-end funds managed by the Company have in the
past become aware of accounts that they believed to be engaged in
short-term, frequent trading. In accordance with the funds'
policies, they rejected or restricted those accounts. In fact, even
prior to the regulatory focus on this issue that began in the fall
of 2003, the open-end funds managed by the Company had restricted a
number of accounts believed to
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Mr. William Friar
October 1, 2004
Page 6
be engaged in short-term, frequent trading. In addition, as is
disclosed in the Company's September 10, 2004 responses to the
staff's prior comments on this matter, the Company has not entered
into any agreements, whether formal or informal, to permit
short-term, frequent trading in any of the funds that it manages.
Our profit margins...
7. Revise to use the second sentence as the caption. In addition,
disclose the Company's fee structure as it compares to others in the
industry.
The Company has revised the second