The company must give FINRA a minimum of 10 day's notice for a RS. Sharp says FINRA may not make it easy because of the past management.
The company can't change their name and CIK within 60 days of a RS.
They filed for a name change already so I am assuming that the name change will take place while FINRA is looking into the company.
I suppose that if FINRA allows a quick RS, they could do that first and then wait 2 months for the name change. I think that is what happened with JBZ* or whatever that Chinese car company is.
You are right tho. In order to complete the deal, the RS must come first.