Benefit of Agreement Assignments Participations (a) This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the respective successors and assigns of the parties hereto; provided, however, that (i) no Credit Party may assign or transfer any of its rights, obligations or interest hereunder or under any other Credit Document without the prior written consent of the Lenders, (ii) although any Lender may grant participations in its rights hereunder, such Lender shall remain a “Lender” for all purposes hereunder (and may not transfer or assign all or any portion of its Commitments hereunder except as provided in Section 11.04(b)) and no participant shall constitute a “Lender” hereunder and (iii) no Lender shall transfer or grant any participation under which the participant shall have rights to approve any amendment to or waiver of this Agreement or any other Credit Document except to the extent such amendment or waiver would (x) extend the final scheduled maturity of any Loan or Note in which such participant is participating, or reduce the rate or extend the time of payment of interest or Commitment Commission thereon (except (I) in connection with a waiver of applicability of any post-default increase in interest rates and (II) that any amendment or modification to the financial definitions in this Agreement shall not constitute a reduction in the rate of interest for purposes of this clause (x)) or reduce the principal amount thereof, or increase the amount of the participant’s participation over the amount thereof then in effect (it being understood that a waiver of any Default or Event of Default or of a mandatory reduction in the Total Commitments shall not constitute a change in the terms of such participation, and that an increase in any Commitment or Loan shall be permitted without the consent of any participant if the participant’s participation is not increased as a result thereof), (y) consent to the assignment or transfer by the Borrower of any of its rights and obligations under this Agreement or (z) release all or substantially all of the Collateral under all of the Security Documents (except as expressly provided in the Credit Documents) securing the Loans hereunder in which such participant is participating. In the case of any such participation, the participant shall not have any rights under this Agreement or any of the other Credit Documents (the participant’s rights against such Lender in respect of such participation to be those set forth in the agreement executed by such Lender in favor of the participant relating thereto) and all amounts payable by the Borrower hereunder shall be determined as if such Lender had not sold such participation. Each Lender that sells a participation shall, acting solely for this purpose as an agent of the Borrower, maintain a register on which it enters the name and address of each participant and the principal amounts (and stated interest) of each participant’s interest in the Loan or other obligations under the Note (the “Participant Register”); provided that no Lender shall have any obligation to disclose all or any portion of the Participant Register (including the identity of any participant or any information relating to a participant’s interest in any commitments, loans or its other obligations under any Note) to any Person except to the extent that such disclosure is necessary to establish that such commitment, loan, letter of credit or other obligation is in registered form under Section 5f.103-1(c) of the United States Treasury Regulations. The entries in the Participant Register shall be conclusive absent manifest error, and such Lender shall treat each Person whose name is recorded in the Participant Register as the owner of such participation for all purposes of this Agreement notwithstanding any notice to the contrary. For the avoidance of doubt, the Administrative Agent (in its capacity as Administrative Agent) shall have no responsibility for maintaining a Participant Register.
(b) Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Lender (or any Lender together with one or more other Lenders) may:
Benefit of Agreement Assignments and Participations (a) This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Borrower, the Lenders and the Agent and their respective successors and permitted assigns, and all subsequent holders of any of the Notes or any portion thereof.
(b) Each Lender may assign its rights and interests under this Agreement, the Notes and the Security Documents and/or delegate its obligations hereunder and thereunder, in whole or in part, and sell participations in the Notes and the Security Documents as security therefor, to any bank or financial institution with net capital, capital surplus and undivided profits in excess of $500,000,000, provided as follows:
(i) No Lender shall make any assignment, other than an assignment in whole or to a separately organized branch or an affiliate of the same Lender, if, after giving effect thereto, such Lender would hold less than $5,000,000 of the then aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Notes, notwithstanding this provision any Lender may make assignments in any amount to any other existing Lender, subject to the Agent's and the Borrower's consent, which consent will not be unreasonably withheld or delayed, provided that the Borrower's consent will not be required if a Default (other than a de minimus default under the Loan Documents) then exists and is continuing hereunder.
(ii) Any such assignment made other than to a separately organized branch, or an affiliate of, a Lender shall reflect an assignment of such assigning Lender's Notes and Commitments which is in an aggregate principal amount of at least $ 1,000,000, and if greater, shall be an integral multiple of $1,000,000.
(iii) Notwithstanding any provision of this Agreement to the contrary, each Lender may at any time assign all or any portion of its rights under this Agreement and each of the other Loan Documents, including, without limitation, the Notes held by such Lender, to a Federal Reserve Bank (or equivalent thereof in the case of Lenders chartered outside of the United States); provided that no such assignment shall release a Lender from any of its obligations and liabilities under the Loan Documents. Any Federal Reserve Bank (or equivalent thereof) which receives such an assignment from any Lender may make further assignments of such rights in accordance with the provisions of this Section.
(iv) Any assignments and/or delegations made hereunder shall be pursuant to an instrument of assignment and acceptance (the "Assignment and Acceptance") substantially in the form of Schedule 13(b)(iv) and the parties to each such assignment shall execute and deliver to the Agent for its acceptance the Assignment and Acceptance together with any Note or Notes subject thereto. Upon such execution and delivery, from and after the effective date specified in each Assignment and Acceptance, which effective date shall be at least five (5) Business Days after the execution thereof, (A) the assignee thereunder shall become a party hereto and, to the extent provided in such Assignment and Acceptance, have the rights and obligations of a Lender hereunder with Commitments as set forth therein and (B) the assigning Lender thereunder shall, to the extent provided in such assignment, be released from its obligations under this Agreement as to that portion of its obligation being so assigned and delegated. The Assignment and Acceptance shall be deemed to amend this Agreement to the extent, and only to the extent, necessary to reflect the addition of the assignee as a Lender and the resulting adjustment of Commitments arising from the purchase by and delegation to such assignee of all or a portion of the rights and obligations of such assigning Lender under this Agreement.
(v) Upon its receipt of an Assignment and Acceptance executed by an assigning Lender and the assignee together with the Note or Notes subject to such assignment and payment by the assignee to the Agent of a registration and processing fee of $3,500, the Agent shall accept such Assignment and Acceptance. Promptly upon delivering such Assignment and Acceptance to the Agent, the assigning Lender shall give notice thereof to the Borrower pursuant to a Notice of Assignment and Acceptance substantially in the form of Schedule 13(b)(y) and addressed to the Agent and the Borrower. Within five (5) Business Days after receipt of such notice, the Borrower shall, execute and deliver to the Agent in exchange for each such surrendered Note a new Note payable to the order of such assignee in an amount equal to the portion of the applicable Commitment(s) assumed by such assignee pursuant to such Assignment and Acceptance and a new Note payable to the order of the assigning Lender in an amount equal to the portion of the applicable Commitment(s) retained by it hereunder. Such new Notes shall be dated the effective date of such Assignment and Acceptance and shall otherwise be in substantially the form provided in Section 1.01. Canceled Notes shall be returned to the Borrower upon the execution and delivery of such new Notes.
(vi) Each Lender may sell participations in all or a portion of its rights and obligations under this Agreement (including, without limitation, all or a portion of its Commitment and the Notes held by it); provided, however, that, (A) the selling Lender shall remain obligated under this Agreement to the extent as it would if it had not sold such participation, (B) the selling Lender shall remain solely responsible to the other parties hereto for the performance of such obligations, (C) at no time shall the selling Lender agree with such participant to take or refrain from taking any action hereunder or under any other Loan Document, except that the selling Lender may agree not to consent, without such participant's consent, to any of the actions referred to Article XII, to the extent that the same require the consent of each Lender hereunder, (D) all amounts payable by the Borrower hereunder shall be determined as if such Lender had not sold such participation and no participant shall be entitled to receive any greater amount pursuant to this Agreement than the selling Lender would have been entitled to receive in respect of the amount of the participation transferred by such Lender to such participant had no such transfer occurred, and (E) the Borrower, the Agent and the other Lenders shall continue to deal solely and directly with the selling Lender in connection with such Lendees rights and obligations under this Agreement.
(vii) Except for an assignment made to a separately organized branch or an Affiliate of a Lender, no assignment or participation referred to above shall be permitted without the prior written consent of the Agent and the Borrower, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed, provided that the Borrower's consent will not be required if an Event of Default (other than a de minimus default under the Loan Documents) then exists and is continuing hereunder.
(viii) The Borrower may not assign any of its rights or delegate any of its duties or obligations hereunder.
(ix) Any Lender may, in connection with any assignment or participation pursuant to this Section, disclose to the assignee or participant any information relating to the Companies, the Parent Companies and their respective Affiliates furnished to such Lender by or on behalf of the Borrower and such assignee or participant shall treat such information as confidential.
