SEC Company Response from Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp (CIK 0001313918) — Jun 15, 2005
Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp (CIK 0001313918)
Date: June 15, 2005 · CIK: 0001313918 · Accession: 0000950117-05-002459
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File numbers found in text: 333-123762
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HUNTON & WILLIAMS LLP
RIVERFRONT PLAZA, EAST TOWER
951 EAST BYRD STREET
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23219-4074
TEL 804 • 788 • 8200
FAX 804 • 788 • 8218
FILE NO: 66013.4
June 15,
2005
VIA EDGAR
Ms. Elaine Wolff
Branch Chief
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20549
RE:
Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp.
Amended Registration Statement on Form S-11, filed on
June 15, 2005
Registration No. 333-123762
Dear Ms. Wolff:
As
counsel to Deerfield Triarc Capital Corp., a Maryland corporation (the “Company”),
we are transmitting for filing pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended
(the “Securities Act”), Amendment No. 4 (“Amendment No. 4”)
to the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-11 (File No. 333-123762)
(the “Registration Statement”), together with exhibits, and the Company's
responses to the comments of the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance
(the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”)
contained in your letter to Mr. Jonathan W. Trutter of the Company, dated June
14, 2005.
For
convenience of reference, each Staff comment contained in your letter is reprinted
below in italics, numbered to correspond with paragraph numbers assigned in
your June 14, 2005 comment letter, and is followed by the corresponding response
of the Company. All page references in responses are to pages of the blacklined
version of Amendment No. 4.
We
have provided to each of you, Matt Maulbeck, Steven Jacobs and Geoffrey Ossias,
a courtesy copy of this letter and two courtesy copies of Amendment No. 4
filed by the Company on the date hereof, one copy of which has been marked to
reflect changes made to the Registration Statement filed with the Commission
on June 14, 2005. These changes have been made in response to the Staff’s
comments and for the purpose of updating and revising certain information in
the Registration Statement. Capitalized terms used and not otherwise defined
in this response letter that are defined in the Registration Statement shall
have the meanings set forth in the Registration Statement.
General
Comments
1.
We note that at least 15% (and up to 100%) of your manager’s fees are to be paid in vested stock. See Section 8(f) of the management agreement. We further note that the manager is restricted from selling those shares for itself for one year from the date of issuance. However, the manager may allocate them to any number of people, in its “sole and absolute discretion,” prior to the expiration of this period. Apparently, recipients of such allocations are not themselves bound by the one-year lock up. Please
Ms. Elaine Wolff
June 15,
2005
Page 2
tell
us why your manager should not be viewed as an underwriter with respect
to future distributions of stock under the management agreement and, if
it is an underwriter, what exemption from registration it intends to rely
on for making allocations.
RESPONSE:
The
Company respectfully submits to the Staff that the Manager does not have
the right to make allocations in its sole and absolute discretion. The
operative documents related to the payment of incentive compensation in
the form of stock and option awards from the Company to the Manager contain
meaningful limitations and restrictions on allocations of these awards
from the Manager to other parties. Section 8 of the Management Agreement
(filed as Exhibit 10.2 to the Company’s Registration Statement of
Form S-11), for example, expressly limits allocations of the Manager’s
incentive awards solely to “its officers, employees, and other individuals
who provide services to it.” Section 5 of the Amended and Restated
Stock Award Agreement and Section 2(d) of the Amended and Restated Stock
Option Agreement both contain restrictions that require (i) any transfer
of stock and option awards under these agreements to be preceded by advance
written notice to the Company’s compensation committee (which committee
is, as described on page 109 of the Registration Statement, comprised
completely of independent directors) describing the terms and conditions
of the proposed transfer and (ii) compliance with the requirements of
the stock incentive plan and any other terms and conditions that the compensation
committee may require in connection with such transfer. Further, under
these same sections a transferee of award shares or options receives such
transferred shares subject to the following limitations: (i) the transferee
is not entitled to transfer the award allocation other than by will or
the laws of descent and distribution, (ii) the transferee is not entitled
to exercise any option or receive any shares under any award allocation
unless there is in effect a registration statement on an appropriate form
covering the shares or the Company reasonably determines that an exemption
from registration is available, (iii) the administrator or the Company
are not required to provide any notice to the transferee, whether or not
such notice is or would otherwise have been required to the manager under
the original award grant, and (iv) the consequences of a termination of
the Manager’s service to the Company continue to apply to unexercisable
or unvested awards that are held by the transferee. The Company expects
that the documentation for future awards of incentive compensation will
contain substantially similar provisions.
With respect to the “sole and
absolute discretion” language contained in Section 8 of the Management Agreement, the
Company respectfully submits to the Staff that the purpose of this language is to fully
acknowledge the right of the Manager to determine which of its officers and employees are
to receive allocations, as well as the size and timing of any such allocations. This
language does not operate to mitigate the very real limitations on transfer contained in
the award documentation. Moreover, the language contained in Section 8 of the Management
Agreement with respect to the registration of the awards under a registration statement on
Form S-3 was included in the agreement solely due to the fact that Form S-8 is limited to
employees, officers, and directors of an issuer as well as consultants and advisors who
are natural persons. See General Instruction A(1)(a)(1) to Form S-8. As a result,
regardless of any potential allocation of awards, the Manager would not be eligible to
sell shares underlying the awards into the public market under Form S-8 as would a natural
person receiving the same awards.
Finally, the Company respectfully submits that it does not believe the
Manager has received or will receive incentive compensation awards with
a view towards distribution of those awards and thus the Manager should
not be considered an underwriter with respect to any future allocation
of such awards. The Company believes that any Manager allocation of incentive
compensation awards to its officers and employees is not a distribution
because (a) any such allocation would be made to a limited number of individuals
who are or have been involved in providing services to the Company and
have a pre-existing relationship with the Company, (b) any such allocation
will be determined internally and confidentially by representatives of
the Manager or its affiliates, (c) there will be no general solicitation
or advertising with respect to any allocated shares and (d) no offer will
be made to the recipients of any such shares, and the recipients will
not pay any consideration for the shares allocated to them other than
the services such individuals will have provided to the Manager and, therefore,
there will be no sale. Accordingly, because any allocation by the Manager
of its incentive compensation awards would not constitute a distribution,
the Manager should not be viewed as taking those shares with a view towards
distribution and thus should not be considered an underwriter with respect
to any future allocations.
2.
We note your response to prior comment 18 and fail to see how your business model is unique. Numerous other firms complement their “investments in MBS with a variety of other alternative asset classes to attempt to enhance returns to” stockholders and “reduce the overall risk” by reducing correlation among investments. Please omit. Also, with respect to your “deal flow” disclosure, please revise to make it clear in the same reference that no such opportunities have been brought to you to date and that your manager and Triarc are not obligated to provide you with any opportunities at all.
RESPONSE:
In
response to the Staff’s comment, the Company has removed the reference
to “unique” from the disclosure on pages 7 and 79. In addition,
the Company supplementally advises the Staff that Deerfield Capital and
Triarc have brought opportunities to the Company and thus has revised
the disclosure to remove the reference to its prospective intentions.
In response to the Staff’s comment, the Company has included disclosure
that Triarc is not obligated to provide it with any opportunities. Since
Deerfield Capital is obligated under the management agreement to provide
us with opportunities as set forth in the management agreement, the Company
has not included similar disclosure with respect to Deerfield Capital.
Cover
Page
3.
Please revise to limit the underwriters on the cover to the managing underwriters.
RESPONSE:
The Company supplementally advises the Staff that each underwriter listed on the
cover page is either a joint book-running manager or a co-manager and therefore,
a managing underwriter. The Company also advises the Staff that there may be an
underwriting syndicate in connection with the offering and, in such case, each
underwriter in the syndicate will not be listed on the cover page but will be
listed in the underwriting section. Accordingly, the Company has not revised the
cover page with respect to the Staff’s comment.
Ms. Elaine Wolff
June 15,
2005
Page 3
Summary,
page 1
Our
Investment Strategy, page 6
4.
Please remove duplicative disclosure—the first three sentences of the second paragraph repeats information contained in your description of your manager at the top of the page.
RESPONSE:
In
response to the Staff’s comment, the Company has removed the duplicative
disclosure from the second paragraph of “Our Investment Strategy”
on page 6.
Conflicts
of Interest, page 10
5.
We
note your response to prior comment 35. Please disclose this information
in your discussion of manager conflicts.
RESPONSE:
In response to the Staff’s comment, the Company has revised the disclosure on page 11.
MD&A
Recent
Developments, page 69
6.
We note your response to prior comment 39. Please confirm that you have disclosed your acquisition of $100 million in bank loans connected with the Market Square CDO.
RESPONSE:
The
Company supplementally advises the Staff that the last sentence of prior
comment No. 39 was inadvertently misstated. The Company advises the Staff
that the Company did not acquire an additional $100 million in bank loans
held for sale. Therefore, we have not revised the disclosure. The Company
advises the Staff that it intended to refer to the increase of up to $300
million of bank loans that could be acquired under the warehouse agreement
with UBS from $200 million, as disclosed on pages 86 and 98. Upon the
closing of the Market Square transaction on May 10, 2005, the liabilities
under the warehouse agreement were discharged as disclosed on page 71.
Collateralized
Debt Obligations, page 80
7.
We note your disclosure that as of March 31, 2005 you have invested in one CDO tranche with fair market value of $2.9 million. We further note that CDOs in which you invest may be “synthetic.” Please indicate the nature of this investment.
RESPONSE:
In
response to the Staff’s comment the Company has revised the disclosure
on page 82 to clarify that the one CDO tranche is a “synthetic”
CDO.
Ms. Elaine Wolff
June 15,
2005
Page 4
Principal
Stockholders, page 121
8.
We note from footnote (6) that Mr. Peltz is a “significant” stockholder of Triarc. Please revise to disclosure his percentage ownership.
RESPONSE:
In
response to the Staff’s comment, the Company has revised footnote
6 on page 123.
Notes
to the Financial Statements for the three months ended March 31, 2005 and the
year ended December 31, 2004
Notes
8 & 6 – Capital Stock and Earnings (Loss) per Share, pages F-12 –
F-13 and F-29 – F-30
9.
We note your response to comment 52 and the supplemental information dated June 13, 2005. We acknowledge your representation that estimating dividend yield based on the book value of your competitors as opposed to using the market value, as we advocate, results in an immaterial impact to your operations and financial position. Please confirm that you will continue to assess the materiality of using the book value approach as opposed to the market value approach.
RESPONSE:
The
Company confirms that it will continue to assess the materiality of using
the book value approach as opposed to the market value approach. The book
value approach will be modified to conform to the market value approach
as the Company's market value begins to differ from its book value as
operations ramp up.
If you have any questions or comments regarding the foregoing, or have additional questions or comments, please contact the undersigned at 804-788-7366.
Very truly yours,
/s/ Daniel M. LeBey
Daniel M. LeBey
cc:
Mr. Matt Maulbeck
Mr. Geoffrey Ossias
Mr. Steven Jacobs
Mr. Jonathan W. Trutter
Mr. Aaron D. Peck
Mr. Frederick L. White
Mr. Larry P. Medvinsky