Successors and Assigns; Participations; Purchasing Lenders (a) This Amended Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the Company, the Lenders, the Agents, all future holders of the Loans, and their respective successors and assigns, except that the Company may not assign or transfer any of its rights or obligations under this Amended Agreement without the prior written consent of each Lender.
(b) Any Lender other than any Conduit Lender may, in the ordinary course of its business and in accordance with applicable law, at any time sell to one or more banks or other financial institutions or Lender Affiliates (“Participants”) participating interests in any Loan owing to such Lender, any participating interest of such Lender in the Letters of Credit, any Note held by such Lender, any Commitment of such Lender or any other interest of such Lender hereunder and under the other Credit Documents. In the event of any such sale by a Lender of participating interests to a Participant, such Lender’s obligations under this Amended Agreement to the other parties to this Amended 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 Amended Agreement and the other Credit Documents, the Company and the Administrative Agent shall continue to deal solely and directly with such Lender in connection with such Lender’s rights and obligations under this Amended Agreement and the other Credit Documents; provided, however, that such Lender shall not, without the consent of the Participant, agree to any amendment, waiver or other modification described in Section 12.1(i) that affects such Participant. The Company agrees that if amounts outstanding under this Amended Agreement and the Loans are due and unpaid, or shall have been declared or shall have become due and payable upon the occurrence of an Event of Default, each Participant shall be deemed to have the right of setoff in respect of its participating interest in amounts owing under this Amended Agreement and any Loan to the same extent as if the amount of its participating interest were owing directly to it as a Lender under this Amended Agreement or any Loan; provided that such Participant shall only be entitled to such right of setoff if it shall have agreed in the agreement pursuant to which it shall have acquired its participating interest to share with the Lenders the proceeds thereof, as provided in Section 12.7. The Company also agrees that each Participant shall be entitled to the benefits of Sections 5.12, 5.19, 5.20, 5.21 and 5.23 with respect to its participation in the Letters of Credit and in the Commitments and the Loans outstanding from time to time; provided that (x) no Participant shall be entitled to receive any greater amount pursuant to such Sections 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, (y) each Participant shall be subject to the provisions of paragraph (c) of Section 5.20 and (z) a Participant that would be a Foreign Lender if it were a Lender shall not be entitled to the benefits of Section 5.23 unless the Company is notified of the participation interest sold to such Participant and such Participant agrees, for the benefit of the Company, to comply with Section 5.23(e) and (h) as through it were a Lender.
(c) Any Lender other than any Conduit Lender may, in the ordinary course of its business and in accordance with applicable law, with the prior written consent of the Issuing Lender and the Swing Line Lender (in the case of the Revolving Credit Facility, at any time sell to any Lender or any Affiliate or Lender Affiliate thereof (including any Affiliate or Subsidiary of such transferor Lender) and, with the prior written consent of the Company (subject to the penultimate sentence of this clause (c)) and the Administrative Agent (which in each case shall not be unreasonably withheld, conditioned, or delayed), sell to one or more additional banks or financial institutions (an “Assignee”), all or any part of its rights and obligations under this Amended Agreement, the Notes and the other Credit Documents and, with respect to the Letters of Credit, such Lender’s L/C Participating Interest, pursuant to an Assignment and Acceptance executed by such Assignee, such assigning Lender (and by the Company, the Administrative Agent, the Issuing Lender and the Swing Line Lender, to the extent their consent is required), and delivered to the Administrative Agent for its acceptance and recording in the Register; provided that (A) each such sale pursuant to this Section 12.6(c) of a Lender’s rights and obligations (I) to a Person which is not then a Lender or an Affiliate or Lender Affiliate of a Lender shall be of the entire remaining amount of the Assigning Lenders rights and obligations or, if less than such entire remaining amount, of Commitments and/or Loans of $5,000,000 (or in the case of any Incremental Term Loan Commitments and Incremental Term Loans, $1,000,000) or more unless otherwise agreed by the Company and the Administrative Agent; and (II) to a Person which is then a Lender or an Affiliate or Lender Affiliate of a Lender may be in any amount and shall not require the consent of the Company or the Administrative Agent, and (B) each Assignee which is a Foreign Lender shall comply with the provisions of Section 5.23(e) and (h) hereof; and provided, further that the foregoing shall not prohibit a Lender from selling participating interests in accordance with Section 12.6(b) in all or any portion of its Commitments and/or Loans (without duplication). For purposes of clauses (A) and (B) of the first proviso contained in the preceding sentence, the amount described therein shall be aggregated in respect of each Lender and its Lender Affiliates, if any. 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 the Commitments and Loans as set forth therein, and (y) the assigning Lender thereunder shall, to the extent of the interest transferred, as reflected in such Assignment and Acceptance, be released from its obligations under this Amended Agreement (and, in the case of an Assignment and Acceptance covering all or the remaining portion of an assigning Lender’s rights and obligations under this Amended Agreement, such assigning Lender shall cease to be a party hereto). Such Assignment and Acceptance shall be deemed to amend this Amended Agreement to the extent, and only to the extent, necessary to reflect the addition of such Assignee and the resulting adjustment of Commitment Percentages arising from the purchase by such Assignee of all or a portion of the rights and obligations of such assigning Lender under this Amended Agreement. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary (and to the extent permitted by law), after the occurrence and during the continuance of an Event of Default any Lender may sell all or any part of its rights and obligations under this Amended Agreement without the consent of the Company. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Conduit Lender may assign at any time to its designating Lender hereunder without the consent of the Company or the Administrative Agent any or all of the Loans it may have funded hereunder and pursuant to its designation agreement and without regard to the limitations set forth in the first sentence of this Section 12.6(c).
(d) The Administrative Agent acting on behalf of and as agent for the Company, shall maintain at the address of the Administrative Agent referred to in Section 12.2 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, the principal amount of any Swing Line Loans, Revolving Credit Loans and Incremental Term Loans, if any owing to, and if such Lender has any Revolving Credit Commitment, the L/C Participating Interests of, each Lender from time to time. The entries in the Register shall be conclusive, in the absence of manifest error, and the Company, the Administrative Agent and the Lenders shall treat each Person whose name is recorded in the Register as the owner of the Loans or L/C Participating Interests recorded therein for all purposes of this Amended Agreement, notwithstanding any notice to the contrary. The Register shall be available for inspection by the Company or any Lender at any reasonable time and from time to time upon reasonable prior notice. No assignment shall be effective for purposes of this Amended Agreement unless it has been recorded in the Register as provided in this paragraph.
(e) Upon its receipt of an Assignment and Acceptance executed by an assigning Lender and an Assignee (and by the Company, the Issuing Lender, the Swing Line Lender and the Administrative Agent to the extent required hereby), together with payment to the Administrative Agent of a registration and processing fee of $3,500 (which fee the Company shall have no obligation to pay and which fee may be waived by the Administrative Agent in its discretion), 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 Company.
(f) If, pursuant to this Section 12.6, any interest in this Amended Agreement or any Loan or Letter of Credit is transferred to any Transferee which would be a Foreign Lender upon the effectiveness of such transfer, the assigning Lender shall cause such Transferee, concurrently with the effectiveness of such transfer, (i) to represent to the assigning Lender (for the benefit of the assigning Lender, the Administrative Agent and the Company) that under applicable law and treaties no Taxes will be required to be withheld by the Administrative Agent, the Company or the assigning Lender with respect to any payments to be made to such Transferee in respect of the Loans or L/C Participating Interests, (ii) to furnish to the assigning Lender (and, in the case of any Assignee registered in the Register, the Administrative Agent and the Company) such Internal Revenue Service Forms required to be furnished pursuant to Section 5.23(e) and (h) and (iii) to agree (for the benefit of the assigning Lender, the Administrative Agent and the Company) to be bound by the provisions of Section 5.23(e) and (h).
(g) For avoidance of doubt, the parties to this Amended 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 (i) by a Lender of any Loan or Note to any Federal Reserve Bank in accordance with applicable law and (ii) by a Lender or a Lender Affiliate which is a fund to its trustee in support of its obligations to its trustee; provided that any transfer of Loans or Notes upon, or in lieu of, enforcement of or the exercise of remedies under any such pledge shall be treated as an assignment thereof which shall not be made without compliance with the requirements of this Section 12.6.
(h) The Company, upon receipt of written notice from the relevant Lender, agrees to issue Notes to any Lender requiring Notes to facilitate transactions of the type described in paragraph (h) above.
(i) Each of the Company, each Lender and the Administrative Agent hereby confirms that it will not institute against a Conduit Lender or join any other Person in instituting against a Conduit Lender any bankruptcy, reorganization, arrangement, insolvency or liquidation proceeding under any state bankruptcy or similar law, for one year and one day after the payment in full of the latest maturing commercial paper note issued by such Conduit Lender; provided, however (i) that each Lender designating any Conduit Lender hereby agrees to indemnify, save and hold harmless each other party hereto for any loss, cost, damage or expense arising out of its inability to institute such a proceeding against such Conduit Lender during such period forbearance and (ii) the foregoing shall not prohibit or limit the ability of any such Person to file claims against a Conduit Lender in connection with any such proceeding.
