Exchange Act Registration For a period of three (3) years after the date of this Agreement, the Company shall use its best efforts to maintain the registration of the shares of Common Stock under the Exchange Act. The Company shall not deregister the shares of Common Stock under the Exchange Act without the prior written consent of the Representative.
Exchange Listing and Exchange Act Registration The Common Stock is registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act and is included or approved for listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market and the Company has not taken any action designed to, or likely to have the effect of, terminating the registration of the Common Stock under the Exchange Act or delisting the Common Stock from the Nasdaq Capital Market, and the Company has not received any notification that the Commission or the Nasdaq Capital Market is contemplating terminating such registration or listing. The Company has complied in all material respects with the applicable requirements of the Nasdaq Capital Market for maintenance of inclusion of the Common Stock thereon. The Company has filed an application to include the Securities on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Except as previously disclosed to counsel for the Underwriters or as set forth in the Time of Sale Disclosure Package and the Prospectus, to the knowledge of the Company, no beneficial owners of the Company’s capital stock who, together with their associated persons and affiliates, hold in the aggregate 10% or more of such capital stock, have any direct or indirect association or affiliate with a FINRA member.
Offer Documents (a) As promptly as practicable on the date of commencement of the Offer, Parent and Purchaser will file or cause to be filed with the SEC a Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO (together with all amendments and supplements thereto, the "SCHEDULE TO") which will contain an offer to purchase and related letter of transmittal and other ancillary Offer documents and instruments pursuant to which the Offer will be made (collectively, with any supplements or amendments thereto, the "OFFER DOCUMENTS"). Parent and Purchaser represent, warrant and covenant that the Offer Documents will comply in all material respects with the Exchange Act and any other applicable laws and will contain (or will be amended in a timely manner so as to contain) all information which is required to be included therein in accordance with the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations thereunder and other applicable laws; PROVIDED, HOWEVER, that no representation, warranty or covenant hereby is made or will be made by Parent or Purchaser with respect to information supplied by Company in writing expressly for inclusion in the Offer Documents ("COMPANY SUPPLIED INFORMATION"). No representation, warranty or covenant is made or will be made herein by Company with respect to information contained in, or incorporated by reference into, the Offer Documents other than Company Supplied Information.
(b) Parent, Purchaser and Company will each promptly correct any information provided by them for use in the Offer Documents if and to the extent that it becomes false or misleading in any material respect and Parent and Purchaser will jointly and severally take all lawful action necessary to cause the Offer Documents as so corrected to be filed promptly with the SEC and to be disseminated to the Shareholders, in each case as and to the extent required by applicable law. In conducting the Offer, Parent and Purchaser will comply in all material respects with the provisions of the Exchange Act and other applicable laws. Parent and Purchaser will afford Company and its counsel a reasonable opportunity to review and comment on the Offer Documents, including any amendments thereto, prior to the filing thereof with the SEC.
(c) Parent and Purchaser will file with the Commissioner of Commerce of the State of Minnesota any registration statement relating to the Offer required to be filed pursuant to Chapter 80B of the Minnesota Statutes.
(d) Parent and Purchaser will disseminate to the Shareholders the Offer Documents and information contained in the registration statement relating to the Offer required to be filed pursuant to Chapter 80B of the Minnesota Statutes to the extent and within the time period required by Regulation 14D promulgated under the Exchange Act and Chapter 80B of the Minnesota Statutes.
Offer Documents; Proxy Statement The Offer Documents, as filed pursuant to Section 1.1, will not, at the time such Offer Documents are filed with the SEC or are first published, sent or given to stockholders, as the case may be, contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state any material fact required to be stated or incorporated by reference therein or necessary in order to make the statements therein, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading. The information supplied by Parent for inclusion in the Proxy Statement shall not, on the date the Proxy Statement is first mailed to stockholders, at the time of the Stockholders Meeting (as defined in Section 6.1) or at the Effective Time, contain any statement which, at such time and in light of the circumstances under which it shall be made, is false or misleading with respect to any material fact, or shall omit to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements therein not false or misleading or necessary to correct any statement in any earlier communication with respect to the solicitation of proxies for the Stockholders Meeting which has become false or misleading. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Parent and Purchaser make no representation or warranty with respect to any information supplied by the Company or any of its representatives which is contained in or incorporated by reference in any of the foregoing documents or the Offer Documents. The Offer Documents, as amended and supplemented, will comply in all material respects as to form with the requirements of the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
Proxy Statement/Prospectus; Registration Statement (a) As promptly as practicable after the execution of this Agreement, the Buyer and the Company shall prepare and the Company shall file with the SEC the Proxy Statement, and the Buyer shall prepare and file with the SEC the Registration Statement, in which the Proxy Statement will be included as a prospectus, provided that the Buyer may delay the filing of the Registration Statement until approval of the Proxy Statement by the SEC. The Buyer and the Company shall use reasonable efforts to cause the Registration Statement to become effective as soon after such filing as practicable. Each of the Buyer and the Company will respond to any comments of the SEC and will use its respective reasonable efforts to have the Proxy Statement cleared by the SEC and the Registration Statement declared effective under the Securities Act as promptly as practicable after such filings and the Company will cause the Proxy Statement and the prospectus contained within the Registration Statement to be mailed to its stockholders at the earliest practicable time after both the Proxy Statement is cleared by the SEC and the Registration Statement is declared effective under the Securities Act. Each of the Buyer and the Company will notify the other promptly upon the receipt of any comments from the SEC or its staff or any other government officials and of any request by the SEC or its staff or any other government officials for amendments or supplements to the Registration Statement, the Proxy Statement or any filing pursuant to Section 6.2(b) or for additional information and will supply the other with copies of all correspondence between such party or any of its representatives, on the one hand, and the SEC, or its staff or any other government officials, on the other hand, with respect to the Registration Statement, the Proxy Statement, the Merger or any filing pursuant to Section 6.2(b). Each of the Buyer and the Company will cause all documents that it is responsible for filing with the SEC or other regulatory authorities under this Section 6.2 to comply in all material respects with all applicable requirements of law and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. Whenever any event occurs which is required to be set forth in an amendment or supplement to the Proxy Statement, the Registration Statement or any filing pursuant to Section 6.2(b), the Buyer or the Company, as the case may be, will promptly inform the other of such occurrence and cooperate in filing with the SEC or its staff or any other government officials, and/or mailing to stockholders of the Company, such amendment or supplement.
(b) The Buyer and the Company shall make all necessary filings with respect to the Merger under the Securities Act, the Exchange Act, applicable state blue sky laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Filing of Prospectus Supplement The Prospectus, and any supplement thereto, required by Rule 424 to be filed with the Commission have been filed in the manner and within the time period required by Rule 424(b) with respect to any sale of Shares; each Prospectus Supplement shall have been filed in the manner required by Rule 424(b) within the time period required hereunder and under the Act; any other material required to be filed by the Company pursuant to Rule 433(d) under the Act, shall have been filed with the Commission within the applicable time periods prescribed for such filings by Rule 433; and no stop order suspending the effectiveness of the Registration Statement or any notice objecting to its use shall have been issued and no proceedings for that purpose shall have been instituted or threatened.
Disclosures in Registration Statement i. Each of the Registration Statement and any post-effective amendment thereto, at the time it became effective, complied in all material respects with the requirements of the Securities Act. Each Preliminary Prospectus, including the prospectus filed as part of the Registration Statement as originally filed or as part of any amendment or supplement thereto, and the Prospectus, at the time each was filed with the Commission, complied in all material respects with the requirements of the Securities Act. Each Preliminary Prospectus delivered to the Underwriters for use in connection with this Offering and the Prospectus was or will be identical to the electronically transmitted copies thereof filed with the Commission pursuant to its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system (“XXXXX”), except to the extent permitted by Regulation S-T;
ii. Neither the Registration Statement nor any amendment thereto, at the time each part thereto became effective pursuant to the Securities Act, as of the date of this Agreement, at the First Closing Date or at the Second Closing Date, contained, contains or will contain an untrue statement of a material fact or omitted, omits or will omit to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading; provided however that this representation and warranty shall not apply to statements made or statements omitted in reliance upon and in conformity with written information furnished to the Company with respect to the Underwriters by the Representative expressly for use in the Registration Statement, the Pricing Prospectus or the Prospectus or any amendment thereof or supplement thereto. The parties acknowledge and agree that such information provided by or on behalf of the Underwriters consists solely of (i) the name of the Underwriters contained on the cover page of the Pricing Prospectus and Prospectus and (ii) the sub-sections titled “Commissions and Expenses”, “Underwriters’ Warrants”, “Indemnification; Indemnification Escrow”, “Lock-Up Agreements”, “Pricing of this Offering”, “Electronic Offer, Sale and Distribution”, “Price Stabilization, Short Positions and Penalty Bids”, “Passive Market Making”, “Potential Conflicts of Interest”, and “Selling Restrictions” in each case under the caption “Underwriting” in the Prospectus (the “Underwriter Information”);
iii. The Pricing Disclosure Package, as of the Applicable Time, as of the date of this Agreement, and at the First Closing Date and the Second Closing Date, did not, does not and will not include an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements therein, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading; provided, however, that this representation and warranty shall not apply to the Underwriter Information. Each Issuer Free Writing Prospectus does not conflict with the information contained in the Registration Statement, the Preliminary Prospectus, the Pricing Prospectus or the Prospectus, and each Issuer Free Writing Prospectus, as supplemented by and taken together with the Pricing Prospectus as of the Applicable Time, did not include an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements therein, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading; provided, however, that this representation and warranty shall not apply to the Underwriter Information; and
iv. Neither the Prospectus nor any amendment or supplement thereto, as of its issue date, at the time of any filing with the Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b), or at the First Closing Date or the Second Closing Date, included, includes or will include an untrue statement of a material fact or omitted, omits or will omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements therein, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading; provided, however, that this representation and warranty shall not apply to the Underwriter Information.
Preparation of Prospectus and Registration Statement The Partnership will advise the Representatives promptly and, if requested by the Representatives, will confirm such advice in writing: (i) of any request by the Commission for amendment of or a supplement to the Registration Statement, the Preliminary Prospectus or the Prospectus or for additional information; (ii) of the issuance by the Commission of any stop order suspending the effectiveness of the Registration Statement or of the suspension of qualification of the Units for offering or sale in any jurisdiction or the initiation of any proceeding for such purpose; and (iii) within the period of time referred to in paragraph (e) below, of any change in the condition (financial or other), business, prospects, properties, net worth or results of operations of the Plains Entities, taken as a whole, or of the happening of any event that makes any statement of a material fact made in the Registration Statement, the Pricing Disclosure Package or the Prospectus (as then amended or supplemented) untrue or that requires the making of any additions to or changes in the Registration Statement, the Pricing Disclosure Package or the Prospectus (as then amended or supplemented) in order to state a material fact required by the Securities Act or the regulations thereunder to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements therein (in the case of any Preliminary Prospectus or the Prospectus, in the light of the circumstances under which any such statements were made) not misleading, or of the necessity to amend or supplement the Prospectus (as then amended or supplemented) to comply with the Securities Act or any other applicable law. If at any time the Commission shall issue any stop order suspending the effectiveness of the Registration Statement, the Partnership will make every commercially reasonable effort to obtain the withdrawal of such order at the earliest possible time.
Registration Statement and Proxy Statement (a) None of the information supplied or to be supplied by or on behalf of WPL for inclusion or incorporation by reference in:
(i) the registration statement on Form S-4 to be filed with the SEC by WPL in connection with the issuance of shares of WPL Common Stock in the Merger (the "Registration Statement") will, at the time the Registration Statement is filed with the SEC and at the time it becomes effective under the Securities Act, contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state any material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading; and
(ii) the joint proxy statement, in definitive form, relating to the meetings of WPL, IES and Interstate shareholders to be held in connection with the Merger (the "Proxy Statement") will, at the date(s) mailed to shareholders and at the times of the meetings of shareholders to be held in connection with the Merger, contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state any material fact required to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements therein, in light of the circumstances under which they are made, not misleading.
(b) The Registration Statement and the Proxy Statement will comply as to form in all material respects with the provisions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act, respectively, and the applicable rules and regulations thereunder.
PROSPECTUS AND PROXY STATEMENTS; VOTING 3.1. At least annually, the Trust or its designee shall provide the Company, free of charge, with as many copies of the current prospectus (describing only the Portfolios listed in Schedule A hereto) for the Shares as the Company may reasonably request for distribution to existing Policy owners whose Policies are funded by such Shares. The Trust or its designee shall provide the Company, at the Company's expense, with as many copies of the current prospectus for the Shares as the Company may reasonably request for distribution to prospective purchasers of Policies. If requested by the Company in lieu thereof, the Trust or its designee shall provide such documentation (including a "camera ready" copy of the new prospectus as set in type or, at the request of the Company, as a diskette in the form sent to the financial printer) and other assistance as is reasonably necessary in order for the parties hereto once each year (or more frequently if the prospectus for the Shares is supplemented or amended) to have the prospectus for the Policies and the prospectus for the Shares printed together in one document; the expenses of such printing to be apportioned between (a) the Company and (b) the Trust or its designee in proportion to the number of pages of the Policy and Shares' prospectuses, taking account of other relevant factors affecting the expense of printing, such as covers, columns, graphs and charts; the Trust or its designee to bear the cost of printing the Shares' prospectus portion of such document for distribution to owners of existing Policies funded by the Shares and the Company to bear the expenses of printing the portion of such document relating to the Accounts; provided, however, that the Company shall bear all printing expenses of such combined documents where used for distribution to prospective purchasers or to owners of existing Policies not funded by the Shares. In the event that the Company requests that the Trust or its designee provides the Trust's prospectus in a "camera ready" or diskette format, the Trust shall be responsible for providing the prospectus in the format in which it or MFS is accustomed to formatting prospectuses and shall bear the expense of providing the prospectus in such format (e.g., typesetting expenses), and the Company shall bear the expense of adjusting or changing the format to conform with any of its prospectuses.
3.2. The prospectus for the Shares shall state that the statement of additional information for the Shares is available from the Trust or its designee. The Trust or its designee, at its expense, shall print and provide such statement of additional information to the Company (or a master of such statement suitable for duplication by the Company) for distribution to any owner of a Policy funded by the Shares. The Trust or its designee, at the Company's expense, shall print and provide such statement to the Company (or a master of such statement suitable for duplication by the Company) for distribution to a prospective purchaser who requests such statement or to an owner of a Policy not funded by the Shares.
3.3. The Trust or its designee shall provide the Company free of charge copies, if and to the extent applicable to the Shares, of the Trust's proxy materials, reports to Shareholders and other communications to Shareholders in such quantity as the Company shall reasonably require for distribution to Policy owners.
3.4. Notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 above, or of Article V below, the Company shall pay the expense of printing or providing documents to the extent such cost is considered a distribution expense. Distribution expenses would include by way of illustration, but are not limited to, the printing of the Shares' prospectus or prospectuses for distribution to prospective purchasers or to owners of existing Policies not funded by such Shares.
3.5. The Trust hereby notifies the Company that it may be appropriate to include in the prospectus pursuant to which a Policy is offered disclosure regarding the potential risks of mixed and shared funding.
3.6. If and to the extent required by law, the Company shall:
(a) solicit voting instructions from Policy owners;
(b) vote the Shares in accordance with instructions received from Policy owners; and
(c) vote the Shares for which no instructions have been received in the same proportion as the Shares of such Portfolio for which instructions have been received from Policy owners; so long as and to the extent that the SEC continues to interpret the 1940 Act to require pass through voting privileges for variable contract owners. The Company will in no way recommend action in connection with or oppose or interfere with the solicitation of proxies for the Shares held for such Policy owners. The Company reserves the right to vote shares held in any segregated asset account in its own right, to the extent permitted by law. Participating Insurance Companies shall be responsible for assuring that each of their separate accounts holding Shares calculates voting privileges in the manner required by the Mixed and Shared Funding Exemptive Order. The Trust and MFS will notify the Company of any changes of interpretations or amendments to the Mixed and Shared Funding Exemptive Order.
