Clifford Chance

Coronavirus: SEC staff guidance and conditional regulatory relief for affected U.S. public companies

19 March 2020

On March 13, 2020, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) provided guidance to U.S. public companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic (“COVID-19”) regarding changing the time, date or location of annual shareholder meetings (the “Staff Guidance”, available here). In addition, on March 4, 2020, the SEC issued an order (the “Exemptive Order”, available here) providing conditional regulatory relief to extend certain filing deadlines for companies unable to make timely filings due COVID-19 during March and April 2020.

This briefing provides an overview of the regulatory relief provided by the Staff Guidance and Exemptive Order.

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