Successors and Assigns; Participations and Assignments (a) This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of Holdings, the Borrower, the Lenders, the Agents, all future holders of the Loans and their respective successors and assigns, except that the Borrower may not assign or transfer any of its rights or obligations under this Agreement without the prior written consent of the Agents and each Lender.
(b) Any Lender may, without the consent of the Borrower and with notice to the Syndication Agent, in accordance with applicable law, at any time sell to one or more banks, financial institutions or other entities (each, a "Participant") participating interests in any Loan owing to such Lender, any Commitment of such Lender or any other interest of such Lender hereunder and under the other Loan Documents. In the event of any such sale by a Lender of a participating interest to a Participant, such Lender's obligations under this Agreement to the other parties to this Agreement shall remain unchanged, such Lender shall remain solely responsible for the performance thereof, such Lender shall remain the holder of any such Loan for all purposes under this Agreement and the other Loan Documents, and the Borrower and the Agents shall continue to deal solely and directly with such Lender in connection with such Lender's rights and obligations under this Agreement and the other Loan Documents. In no event shall any Participant under any such participation have any right to approve any amendment or waiver of any provision of any Loan Document, or any consent to any departure by any Loan Party therefrom, except to the extent that such amendment, waiver or consent would reduce the principal of, or interest on, the Loans or any fees payable hereunder, or postpone the date of the final maturity of the Loans, in each case to the extent subject to such participation. The Borrower agrees that if amounts outstanding under this Agreement and the Loans are due or unpaid, or shall have been declared or shall have become due and payable upon the occurrence of an Event of Default, each Participant shall, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, be deemed to have the right of setoff in respect of its participating interest in amounts owing under this Agreement to the same extent as if the amount of its participating interest were owing directly to it as a Lender under this Agreement, provided that, in purchasing such participating interest, such Participant shall be deemed to have agreed to share with the Lenders the proceeds thereof as provided in Section 10.7(a) as fully as if it were a Lender hereunder. The Borrower also agrees that each Participant shall be entitled to the benefits of Sections 2.17, 2.18 and 2.19 with respect to its participation in the Commitments and the Loans outstanding from time to time as if it was a Lender; provided that, in the case of Section 2.18, such Participant shall have complied with the requirements of said Section and provided, further, that no Participant shall be entitled to receive any greater amount pursuant to any such Section than the transferor Lender would have been entitled to receive in respect of the amount of the participation transferred by such transferor Lender to such Participant had no such transfer occurred.
(c) Any Lender (an "Assignor") may, in accordance with applicable law and with written notice to the Syndication Agent, at any time and from time to time assign to any Lender or any affiliate thereof or a Person under common management with a Lender or, with the consent of the Borrower and the Syndicate Agent (which, in each case, shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed), to an additional bank, financial institution or other entity (an "Assignee") all or any part of its rights and obligations under this Agreement pursuant to an Assignment and Acceptance (an "Assignment and Acceptance") substantially in the form of Exhibit D, executed by such Assignee, such Assignor, the Syndication Agent and the Administrative Agent (and, where the consent of the Borrower is required pursuant to the foregoing provisions, by the Borrower) and delivered to the Administrative Agent for its acceptance and recording in the Register; provided that no such assignment to an Assignee (other than any Lender or any affiliate thereof) shall be in an aggregate principal amount of less than $5,000,000 (other than in the case of an assignment of all of a Lender's interests under this Agreement), unless otherwise agreed by the Borrower, the Syndication Agent and the Administrative Agent. Any such assignment need not be ratable as among the Facilities. Upon such execution, delivery, acceptance and recording, from and after the effective date determined pursuant to such Assignment and Acceptance, (x) the Assignee thereunder shall be a party hereto and, to the extent provided in such Assignment and Acceptance, have the rights and obligations of a Lender hereunder with a Commitment and/or Loans as set forth therein, and (y) the Assignor thereunder shall, to the extent provided in such Assignment and Acceptance, be released from its obligations under this Agreement (and, in the case of an Assignment and Acceptance covering all of an Assignor's rights and obligations under this Agreement, such assigning Lender shall cease to be a party hereto). Notwithstanding any provision of this Section 11.6, the consent of the Borrower shall not be required for any assignment which occurs at any time when any Event of Default shall have occurred and be continuing.
(d) The Administrative Agent (acting for this purpose as agent of the Borrower) shall maintain at its address referred to in Section 10.2 a copy of each Assignment and Acceptance delivered to it and a register (the "Register") for the recordation of the names and addresses of the Lenders and the Commitment of, and principal amount of the Loans owing to, each Lender from time to time and any Notes evidencing such Loans. The entries in the Register shall be conclusive, in the absence of manifest error, and the Borrower, the Administrative Agent and the Lenders shall treat each Person whose name is recorded in the Register as the owner of the Loan and any Note evidencing such Loan recorded therein for all purposes of this Agreement. Any assignment of any Loan whether or not evidenced by a Note shall be effective only upon appropriate entries with respect thereto being made in the Register (and each Note shall expressly so provide). Any assignment or transfer of all or part of a Loan evidenced by a Note shall be registered on the Register only upon surrender for registration of assignment or transfer of the Note evidencing such Loan, accompanied by a duly executed Assignment and Acceptance, and thereupon one or more new Notes in the same aggregate principal amount shall be issued to the designated Assignee and the old Notes shall be returned by the Administrative Agent to the Borrower marked "cancelled". The Register shall be available for inspection by the Borrower or any Lender at any reasonable time and from time to time upon reasonable prior notice.
(e) Upon its receipt of an Assignment and Acceptance executed by an assigning Lender and an Assignee (and, in the case of an Assignee that is not then a Lender or an affiliate thereof or a Person under common management with such Lender, by the Borrower, the Administrative Agent, the Syndication Agent and the Issuing Lender) together with payment to the Administrative Agent of a registration and processing fee of $2,000 (except that no such registration and processing fee shall be payable (y) in connection with an assignment by or to Xxxxxx Commercial Paper Inc. or (z) in the case of an Assignee which is already a Lender or is an affiliate of a Lender or a Person under common management with a Lender), the Administrative Agent shall (i) promptly accept such Assignment and Acceptance and (ii) on the effective date determined pursuant thereto record the information contained therein in the Register and give notice of such acceptance and recordation to the Lenders and the Borrower. On or prior to such effective date, the Borrower, at its own expense, upon request, shall execute and deliver to the Administrative Agent (in exchange for the Revolving Credit Note and/or Term Notes, as the case may be, of the assigning Lender) a new Revolving Credit Note and/or Term Notes, as the case may be, to the order of such Assignee in an amount equal to the Revolving Credit Commitment and/or applicable Tranche B Term Loans, as the case may be, assumed or acquired by it pursuant to such Assignment and Acceptance and, if the assigning Lender has retained a Revolving Credit Commitment and/or Tranche B Term Loans, as the case may be, upon request, a new Revolving Credit Note and/or Term Notes, as the case may be, to the order of the assigning Lender in an amount equal to the Revolving Credit Commitment and/or applicable Tranche B Term Loans, as the case may be, retained by it hereunder. Such new Notes shall be dated the Closing Date and shall otherwise be in the form of the Note replaced thereby.
(f) For avoidance of doubt, the parties to this Agreement acknowledge that the provisions of this Section concerning assignments of Loans and Notes relate only to absolute assignments and that such provisions do not prohibit assignments creating security interests, including, without limitation, any pledge or assignment by a Lender of any Loan or Note to any Federal Reserve Bank in accordance with applicable law.
