SEC Comment Letter for Bit Digital, Inc (BTBT) (CIK 0001710350) (BTBT) — Aug 2, 2017
Bit Digital, Inc (BTBT) (CIK 0001710350)
Date: Aug. 2, 2017 · CIK: 0001710350 · Accession: 0000000000-17-027228
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Mail Stop 4720 August 2, 2017 Erxin Zeng Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board Golden Bull Limited 707 Zhang Yang Road, Sino Life Tower, F35 Pudong, Shanghai, China 200120 Re: Golden Bull Limited Draft Registration Statement on Form F -1 Submitted July 10, 2017 CIK No. 0001710350 Dear Mr. Zeng : We have reviewed your draft registration statement and have the following comments. In some of our comments, we may ask you to provide us with information so we may better understand your disclosure. Please respond to this letter by providing the requested information and either submitting an amended draft registration statement or publicly filing your registration statement on EDGAR. If you do not believe our comments apply to your facts and circumst ances or do not believe an amendment is appropriate, please tell us why in your response. After reviewing the information you provide in response to these comments and your amended draft registration statement or filed registration statement, we may have additional comments. General 1. Please supplementally provide us with copies of all written communications, as defined in Rule 405 under the Securities Act, that you , or anyone authorized to do so on your behalf , present to potential investors in reliance on Section 5(d) of the Securities Act, whether or not they retain copies of the communications. Prospectus Cover Page 2. Please identify the lead underwriter in your next amendment and disclose the material terms of your offering, including th e nature of your underwriting arrangement, the obligation to return subscriptions by a certain date if you do not receive the minimum amount of subscriptions, and the placement of investor funds in escrow in the interim. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 2 Please refer to Item 501(b)(8) of Regulation S -K for guidance. Further, please revise the Prospectus Summary, Use of Proceeds, Capitalization, Dilution, Risks Related to Our Ordinary Shares and This Offering, and Liquidity and Capital Resources sections of your prospectus consistent with the fact that only the minimum number of your securities may be sold in your offering. Prospectus Summary, page 1 3. Please disclose the key aspects of your offering and your business, such as: You offer short -term loans for periods of 30, 60, or 90 days; Your lending activities are highly concentrated in a small number of borrowers, disclosing representative historical statistics; Whether new regulatory restrictions beginning August 17, 2017 appear likely to impact your business operations, materially desc ribing such restrictions; You were one of approximately 2,448 online consumer finance marketplaces operating in China as of December 2016 and whether you expect competition to increase; Whether and to what extent you have an obligation to repay lenders if a borrower defaults on its loan; Loans you facilitate may only be 70% collateralized; and You do not currently have a risk reserve fund. Please also make corresponding revisions throughout your prospectus. For guidance, please refer to Item 3 of Form F -1 and Instruction to Item 503(a) of Regulation S -K. 4. We note your disclosure on page 2 that “no loans facilitated through [y]our platform had defaulted” as of March 31, 2017. Please disclose: The proportion of loans where borrowers were late on their payments, if any. The number of borrowers who take out multiple loans, the average number of loans per borrower, and any associated limitations on the repayment of existing loans by securing addi tional loans on your platform . Finally, in light of your 0% default rate, please disclose throughout your prospectus that neither your collateralization standards nor default collection efforts have been tested in practice. Our Business, page 1 5. Please revise to disclose if you provide any compensation or benefit to individuals or entities such as lending institutions that refer borrowers to your platform. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 3 6. Please revise to disclose if you have any formal or informal agreements with individuals or entit ies such as lending institutions to refer borrowers to your platform. Corporate History and Structure, page 2 7. Please revise to consistently present the name of your legal entities and subsidiaries. For example, in the diagram on page 3 you refer to Point Cattle Holdings Limited and Point Cattle Group Company Limited as your wholly owned subsidiaries while on page F -6 you appear to refer to the same entities as Golden Bull Holdings Limited and Golden Bull Group Company Limited . 8. Please revise the diagra m on page 3 as follows: Indicate which entities are inside China and which entities are outside China. Add a footnote to disclose that the connections between Shanghai Fuyu Information and Technology Co., Ltd. and your two VIEs are not ownership interests but rather are a series of contractual arrangements. Disclose the ownership interests of your two VIEs, consistent with the remainder of your presentation. Disclose the individuals or entities with the remaining 10.8% equity interests in Shanghai Dianniu Internet Finance Information Service Co., Ltd. 9. Please disclose whether you anticipate being a “controlled company,” as defined in NASDAQ Rule 5615(c)(1) , following the completion of the offering and revise your disclosure as necessary . Variable Interest Entity Arrangements, page 4 10. In the discussion of each VIE agreement for Shanghai Dianniu and Shanghai Baoxun, please ensure you disclose all material terms to ensure in vestors clearly understand each agreement. Additionally, please ensure that your disclosure of each agreement is consistent with the agreement and is consistent throughout your filing. We note for instance on page 4 you disclose the annual consulting ser vice fee is 89.2% of Dianniu’s operating revenue while on page F -6 you disclose the service fee is 89.2% of net profit . Additionally, we note on page F -6 you disclose that Shanghai Fuyu Information and Technology Co., Ltd has the obligation to absorb all of Shanghai Dianniu’s losses while on page F -16 you disclose Shanghai Fuyu Information and Technology Co., Ltd is obligated to absorb 89.17% of Shanghai Dianniu’s losses. 11. Please disclose whether you believe the provision of internet financing services fa lls within the restricted category or the prohibited category under the Guidance Catalog of Industries for Foreign Investment , and briefly describe the consequences of being in such category. Please also disclose Bauxun’s current or anticipated industry categorization and whether foreign investment in this industry is currently encouraged, restricted, Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 4 prohibited, or not listed. Finally, as applicable, please disclose your expectations for the future classifications of the se industries or the re -classification of either VIE to a different industry. Risk Factors, page 10 12. Please revise to provide a risk factor that, as a result of your election to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounti ng standards under Section 102(b)(1), your financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates. Please include a similar statement in your critical accounting policy disclosures in the Management’s Discu ssion and Analysis (MD&A) section. Risks Related to Our Business The laws and regulations governing the peer -to-peer lending service industry…, page 12 13. Please disclose what proportion of your revenue was attributable to loans to borrowers for more than RMB 200,000 as of December 31, 2016, and in the subsequent periods. Please also disclose: Whether this pending restriction also applies to small business loans; Whether there is a penalty associated with an individual borrowing more than RMB 1 million from all platforms combined and to whom such a penalty would be assessed; and Whether and how you will determine if borrowers have obtained loans through other lending platforms. Despite our marketing efforts, we may not be able to promote and maintain our brand in an effective and cost -efficient way and our business and results of operations may be harmed accordingly, page 16 14. Please revise to clarify where in your financial statements you present the $1.6 million in marketing and advertising expenses i ncurred during 2016. We note on page F -3 that selling expenses totaled $826,038 for 2016. Risks Related to Doing Business in China, page 27 15. Please add a risk factor that U.S. regulators’ ability to conduct investigations and inspections within China is limited. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 5 Failure to make adequate contributions to various employee benefit plans as required by PRC regulations may subject us to penalties, page 34 16. Please clarify whether you are or expect to be subject to penalties because you have not made adequate employee benefit payments and, if applicable, please disclose the amount of the penalties. Use of Proceeds, page 44 17. Please estimate your use of proceeds for each principal use identified. For guidance, please refer to Item 4.a of Form F -1 and Item 3.C .1 of Form 20 -F. In addition, please disclose your estimate of the amount of such proceeds that would be available for such uses immediately following the completion of your offering to the extent Chinese law imposes restrictions that would materially imp act the amount of such proceeds actually available to you at such time. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, page 53 18. We note disclosure of customer concentration in the notes to your financial statements on page F -20 and in your risk factor on page 13. Please ensure you identify, quantify and analyze known trends, demands, commitments, events and uncertainties related to customers, investors or referring entities, whether affiliated or unaffiliated, that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on your financial results on business. Refer to Item 303 of Regulation S -K for guidance. 19. Please revise to clarify how the P2P measures, described on page 12 and scheduled to be effective August 17, 2017, w hich cap the maximum loan balance for a borrower to RMB 200,000 are reasonably likely to impact your financial results and business given your disclosure of customer concentration. Key Operating Metrics, page 54 20. Given your limited operating history and the rapid growth during that period, in order to clearly show relevant trends please revise to disclose key operating metrics in a tabular format for each quarter during the reporting periods presented. 21. Please revise to disclose key operating metrics rel ated to your investors including, but not limited to: The reinvestment rate of existing investors; The number of new investors that made an investment during the quarter; and The total number of investors that made an investment during the quarter. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 6 22. Pleas e revise to disclose key operating metrics related to your borrowers including, but not limited to: The re -borrowing rate of existing borrowers; The number of new borrowers that borrowed money during the quarter; and The total number of borrowers that bo rrowed money during the quarter. Please disclose this information separately for individual and small business borrowers. Also discuss relevant differences between individual and small business borrowers from a financial or strategic perspective. 23. Please revise to disclose the delinquency percentage for loans outstanding on your marketplace at each quarter end. 24. Please revise to disclose your average customer acquisition costs for each quarter and discuss and analyze trends in your average customer acq uisition costs. Revenue recognition, page 64 25. Please provide us an accounting analysis related to your recognition of management fees at the time of loan issuance as compared to over the life of the loan. Please identify the accounting guidance you considered in making your determination and explain to us how you determined that all the relevant services have been rendered. 26. Please revise to quantify the amount of licensing fees recognized as income for each period presented and to additional information related to the generation of licensing fees. For example, explain the role of an agent including why a borrower will use an agent, explain what credentialed information is, typical terms of a licensing period, etc. 27. Please provide us an accounting analysis related to your recognition of servicing expense as a reduction of revenue as compared an operating expense. Please identify the specific accounting guidance you considered in making your determination. Business , page 69 28. On page 11 you refer to your inability to collect payments from borrowers as a risk. Please revise here and throughout your filing as appropriate to clarify and expand on your role in collecting payments from borrowers and how this process impacts your f inancial results and business. 29. On page 18 your disclose that because you do not have a risk reserve fund in the event of loan defaults you would not have funds readily available to repay lenders. Please revise here and throughout your filing as appropri ate to clarify in what circumstances you would repay lenders in the event of loan defaults. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 7 30. Please revise to disclose which party manages the collateral repossession process when a borrower defaults on their loan and discuss any fees or costs associated w ith this process. 31. Please revise to provide additional details regarding your investor incentive program including, but not limited to: Clarifying what the consumptive loan program is as compared to other loan programs; Detailing more clearly the criteri a for an investor to get paid an incentive including why the number of first time borrowers is an important factor; Clarifying how the amount of an incentive is determined, how it is earned, when it is paid, and if it is paid at one time or over a specifie d period; Clarifying if the incentive is paid in cash or as a credit to be used to invest in a future loan; and Clarifying how you determine if an incentive results in negative revenue for a marketplace investor and quantifying the negative amount for each period presented. Overview, page 69 32. We note that you restrict access to your platform to “qualified borrowers.” Please describe the necessary qualifications or characteristics your borrowers must possess and explain your reference to “prime borrowers” on the following page. If you target specific borrower demographics, please disclose such demographics. Please also disclose if and how your credit assessment distinguishes between individual and small business borrowers. Our Strategy, page 69 33. Please describe your plan of operation for the remainder of the fiscal year and for the first six months of fiscal year ending December 31, 2018. For guidance, please refer to Item 4 of Form F -1, Instruction 2 to Item 4.B of Form 20 -F and Item 101(a)(2) of Regul ation S - K. Our Platform , page 70 34. Please disclose how you currently market your platform to borrowers and investors. In addition, please disclose how you plan to use proceeds from this offering to expand your marketing efforts. Benefits to Investors, pa ge 70 35. We note your third bullet addresses investor returns “after fees.” Please tell us and revise to clarify if you, or your third party service provider, charge any fees to investors. Erxin Zeng Golden Bull Limited August 2, 2017 Page 8 Benefits to Borrowers Transparent Marketplace,