Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Corresp
Allayne W. Proels
Associate General Counsel
February 14, 2008
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
Washington, D.C. 20549
Attention: |
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Amanda McManus, Branch Chief Legal
Mail Stop 3561 |
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Re: |
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The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007
File No. 001-11593 |
Dear Ms. McManus:
This letter is in response to the comment of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
Commission) provided in your letter dated January 31, 2008, related to the Annual Report on Form
10-K of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (Scotts Miracle-Gro, we or our) for the fiscal year
ended September 30, 2007 (the 2007 Form 10-K). In responding to the Commissions comment, Scotts
Miracle-Gro acknowledges that:
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Scotts Miracle-Gro is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the
disclosure in Scotts Miracle-Gros filing; |
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Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do
not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and |
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Scotts Miracle-Gro may not assert staff comments as a defense in any
proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws
of the United States. |
We have provided your comment and our response to your comment below:
Form 10-KSB[sic] for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007 Part II
Item 15. [sic] Market for Registrants Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer
Purchases of Equity Securities, page 21
14111 Scottslawn Road Marysville, Ohio 43041
Direct line: 937-578-5509
Facsimile: 937-644-7568
Email: Allayne.Proels@Scotts.com
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
February 14, 2008
Page 2
1. We note your disclosure in the final paragraph on page 21 that Smith & Hawkin [sic] 401(k)
Plan participants may have the right to rescind certain stock purchases discussed in this
paragraph. Please provide us supplementally with details explaining how you reached the conclusion
that this rescission right may exist. Your current disclosure merely states that the shares were
not registered, but does not provide additional details about how the sales may have amounted to a
violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. In addition, please discuss how the
purchases could have been made on the open market without registration.
Response: Smith & Hawken, Ltd., a Delaware corporation (Smith & Hawken), is a
wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Scotts Miracle-Gro. Smith & Hawken established the Smith &
Hawken 401(k) Plan (the Plan), which had an original effective date of February 28, 1999 and was
amended and restated effective January 1, 2006. The Plan is a defined contribution plan and is
intended to be a qualified retirement plan under Section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended (the Internal Revenue Code).
The Plan covers employees of Smith & Hawken, other than (i) Puerto Rican residents, (ii)
employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement in which retirement benefits are addressed,
(iii) leased employees, (iv) nonresident aliens working outside the United States, and (v)
temporary or seasonal employees. Qualifying employees of Smith & Hawken who have attained age 21
and have completed two months of service in a 12-month period are eligible to participate in the
Plan and to make employee pretax contributions and receive matching employer contributions.
Qualifying employees of Smith & Hawken who have attained age 21 and have completed 1,000 hours of
service in a 12-month period are eligible to receive discretionary nonelective employer
contributions (profit sharing contributions) under the Plan. Upon enrollment in the Plan, a
participant may direct that his or her contributions be invested in any of the investment options
offered by the Plan. All contributions made to the accounts of participants in the Plan are held
for investment by the trustee of the Plan. The funds represented by the employee and employer
contributions made to the accounts of participants are invested by the trustee of the Plan as
directed by the participants.
Common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro became an investment option under the Plan effective
October 2, 2006. However, Scotts Miracle-Gro inadvertently failed to file a Registration Statement
on Form S-8 in order to register the common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro and participation
interests in the Plan to be offered or sold pursuant to the Plan, prior to the Plans beginning to
offer the Scotts Miracle-Gro common shares as an investment option. In late summer of 2007, Scotts
Miracle-Gro determined that its common shares were being offered as an investment option under the
Plan and filed a Registration Statement on Form S-8 on November 14, 2007 (the Form S-8 for the
Plan) in order to register 50,000 common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro and an indeterminate amount
of participation interests in the Plan to be offered or sold under the Plan from and after that
date. Between October 2, 2006 and November 14, 2007, the trustee of the Plan
purchased 649 common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro for the accounts of 41 participants in the
Plan. All of such purchases were made in the open market and in a manner consistent with the Plan
and the investment elections of Plan participants.
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
February 14, 2008
Page 3
We understand that it is the position of the Commission that, if participants contributions
to a participant-directed plan can be invested in shares of the employer (or, in the case of Smith
& Hawken, its parent), all of the securities offered pursuant to the plan (including participation
interests in the plan) must be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the
Securities Act)1 or be offered pursuant to an available exemption from registration.
This is true regardless of whether the shares are acquired by the trustee for the plan from the
employer (or its parent) or on the open market and whether the shares are purchased with employee
contributions or employer matching contributions.
The 649 common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro acquired for the accounts of participants in the
Plan between October 2, 2006 and November 14, 2007 were sold to the participants by the Plan
without being the subject of an effective registration statement for purposes of Section 5(a) of
the Securities Act. If the acquisitions of these 649 common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro for the
accounts of participants in the Plan were found not to have been exempt from registration under the
Securities Act (i.e., neither the limited offering exemption provided by Section 4(2) of the
Securities Act nor any other exemption provided by Section 3 or 4 of the Securities Act were
available), an employee of Smith & Hawken for whose account Scotts Miracle-Gro common shares were
purchased under the Plan during the period from October 2, 2006 through November 14, 2007 would
have two remedies under Section 12(a) of the Securities Act: (i) if s/he still owns the common
shares, s/he may sue to recover the consideration paid plus interest less the amount of any income
or distributions received; or (ii) if s/he no longer owns the common shares, s/he may sue for
damages equivalent to what s/he would have received in a rescission action if s/he sold below the
amount to which s/he would have been entitled on rescission and if the loss is attributable to the
failure to the failure to register.
As we disclosed in the last paragraph of Item 5. Market for Registrants Common Equity,
Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities in Part II of our 2007 Form
10-K, Scotts Miracle-Gro believes that damages, if any, resulting from successful claims against
Scotts Miracle-Gro for its failure to register the 649 Scotts Miracle-Gro common shares that were
purchased for participants accounts in the Plan during the period from October 2, 2006 through
November 14, 2007 would have a negligible effect on Scotts Miracle-Gro. The market value of 649
common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro was $24,369.95 on November 14, 2007 (the date on which we filed
the Form S-8 for the Plan) based on the closing price on that date and $23,578.17 on November 29,
2007 (the date on which we filed the 2007 Form 10-K) based on the closing price on that date. As
of February 12, 2008, the market value of 649 common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro was $24,668.49
based on the closing price on that date.
The Commission has noted that generally, no matter from whom the securities are obtained,
registration will not be necessary with respect to a transaction by which a plan trustee acquires
securities for the plan. The reason for this result will vary, depending on the manner of acquisition.
For instance, one of the several exemptions from registration provided by Section 4 of the
Securities
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1 |
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SEC Release No. 33-6281, issued January 15, 1981. |
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
February 14, 2008
Page 4
Act may be available.2 It is our understanding that the trustee for the Plan
purchased common shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro for the Plan on the open market from persons who were
not underwriters as permitted under the exemption from registration provided by Section 4(1) of the
Securities Act.
Thank you for your consideration of our response to your comment. If you have any further
inquiries, please feel free to contact me directly at (937) 578-5509.
Sincerely,
/s/ Allayne W. Proels
Allayne W. Proels
AWP/bf/md
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SEC Release No. 33-6188, issued February 1,
1980. In footnote 165 of SEC Release No. 33-6188, the Commission noted that
one of the available exemptions under Section 4 of the Securities Act is that
provided by Section 4(1) for open market purchases from persons who are not
underwriters. |