![]() In awarding the pay, Acme United’s board cited the company’s milestones and achievements, including a big increase in e-commerce sales and a $9.3 million acquisition of a Florida-based manufacturer of antiseptic prep pads and towelettes. The company "has been able to continue to meet the needs of its customers in 2020 without interruption," it said. Its three top executives shared an additional $1.1 million in total compensation last year, a 43 percent increase over 2019. And for 2020, the company recorded that revenues were up by 15 percent, while earnings advanced by 47 percent. 30, Acme earned 87 percent more than it did in the same period last year, its filings show. The company, based in Shelton, Connecticut, tapped the taxpayers for a $3.5 million PPP loan in May 2020 and received forgiveness for it in June of this year.įor the nine months that ended Sept. In a regulatory filing, Sharps said it must keep records of its $2.2 million loan for six years in case the SBA decides to audit the company’s eligibility for the loan. "To the extent the eligibility is challenged, the company may have to repay all or part of the PPP Loan," the filing said.Īcme United, a maker of sharpening tools and first-aid kits, is another example. "Sharps is a relatively small company and the dedicated employees mobilized in a time of great uncertainty and risk, to play a vital role in the safe collection and disposal of COVID-19 related medical waste," the spokesman said. "This loan played an important role in enabling Sharps to confidently execute against this plan, protect employees and help customers as they contended with the pandemic." ![]() For example, Sharps’ stock market value was about $100 million when it got the PPP loan, and shortly after it was forgiven, the company raised $17 million by issuing new shares, regulatory records show. Some 157 companies with access to the stock market got about $300 million worth of the $610 billion that had been forgiven as of mid-October, or less than 0.1 percent of the total. Nevertheless, some companies whose loans over $1 million have been forgiven had access to stock market funding both when they took the taxpayer money and when they received forgiveness, NBC News found. In the early days of the pandemic, the stock market was cratering, but since then, it has repeatedly hit new highs. "It is unlikely that a public company with substantial market value and access to capital markets will be able to make the required certification in good faith," the SBA said. Initially, borrowers did have to certify "in good faith" that the funding was necessary when they applied for loans, taking into account "their current business activity" and their ability to access other sources of capital to support their operations, such as the stock market or deep-pocketed investors. The government made it clear at the time that borrowers would be entitled to forgiveness if they met certain requirements. When the government launched the PPP, few rules were in place the idea was to get money to businesses fast. ![]() There is no evidence that Sharps and the other companies identified by NBC News broke any laws or secured their loan forgiveness improperly. Under the program, PPP loans can be forgiven if recipients maintain employee and compensation levels where they were before Covid and if at least 60 percent of the loan proceeds are spent on payroll costs and the rest on other eligible expenses, such as rent or utility payments. And while those companies could not have predicted their standout results when they applied for PPP loans, their requests for loan forgiveness came well after the gains were evident. But an investigation by NBC News shows that the operations of some companies receiving loan forgiveness, like Sharps, seemed to thrive during Covid, rather than be hurt by it. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |