Initial Public Offerings

A foreign biotechnology company pursued an IPO in the U.S. with an accelerated timeline.

The Challenge

  • Company had never been audited and the historical books and records were not maintained in US GAAP
  • Four distinct sets of books each maintained in disparate accounting systems
  • High-volume of intercompany transactions, intercompany accounts did not balance
  • The Company did not have a functioning consolidation model
  • Significant volume of unique and complicated transactions that required careful evaluation under US GAAP
  • Extremely complicated capital structure
  • Lack of resources in the finance group

The Solution

  • WilliamsMarston immediately inserted itself into the process coordinating the Big 4 multinational audit teams
  • Completed over twenty complex technical accounting memos each reviewed by the Big 4 national office including functional currency, preferred stock, convertible debt, stock-based compensation, joint ventures, collaboration agreements, variable interest entities, etc.
  • Converted historical records to US GAAP and built an audit ready excel-based consolidation model to properly address foreign currency remeasurement, translation and intercompany transactions.
  • Implemented new accounting system to eliminate disparate systems
  • Wrote MD&A and F- pages sections of S-1
  • Responded to and resolved accounting related SEC comments

The Result

Clean audit opinion was issued on all historical periods included in the S- 1 and all SEC comments were resolved successfully.