Description of the Registrants Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

The following description of our common units is a summary and does not purport to be complete. It is subject to and qualified in its entirety by reference to our Third Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership, dated as of January 29, 2020 (“Partnership Agreement”), which is incorporated by reference as an exhibit to the Annual Report on Form 10-K of which this Exhibit 4.2 is a part. We encourage you to read our Partnership Agreement for additional information.

Our common units represent limited partner interests in us. The holders of common units are entitled to participate in partnership distributions and to exercise the rights and privileges provided to limited partners under our Partnership Agreement.

As of January 29, 2020, there were 89,736,622 common units outstanding.

Our common units are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, under the symbol “CNXM.”

The transfer agent and registrar for our common units is EQ Shareowner Services, 1110 Centre Pointe Curve, Suite 101, Mendota Heights, MN 55120.

By transfer of common units in accordance with our Partnership Agreement, each transferee of common units shall be admitted as a limited partner with respect to the common units transferred when such transfer and admission are reflected in our books and records. Each transferee:

•represents that the transferee has the capacity, power and authority to become bound by our Partnership Agreement;

•automatically agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions of, and is deemed to have executed, our Partnership Agreement; and

•gives the consents and approvals contained in our Partnership Agreement. 

A transferee will become a substituted limited partner of our partnership for the transferred common units automatically upon the recording of the transfer on our books and records. Our general partner will cause any transfers to be recorded on our books and records from time to time as necessary to accurately reflect the transfers but no less frequently than quarterly.

We may, at our discretion, treat the nominee holder of a common unit as the absolute owner. In that case, the beneficial holder’s rights are limited solely to those that it has against the nominee holder as a result of any agreement between the beneficial owner and the nominee holder.

Common units are securities and transferable according to the laws governing the transfer of securities. In addition to other rights acquired upon transfer, the transferor gives the transferee the right to become a substituted limited partner in our partnership for the transferred common units.

Until a common unit has been transferred on our books, we and the transfer agent may treat the record holder of the common unit as the absolute owner for all purposes, except as otherwise required by law or stock exchange regulations.

Our Partnership Agreement requires that, within 45 days after the end of each quarter, we distribute all of our available cash to unitholders of record on the applicable record date. Other than the requirement in our Partnership Agreement to distribute all of our available cash each quarter, we have no legal obligation to make quarterly cash distributions and the board of directors of our general partner has considerable discretion to determine the amount of our available cash each quarter. Generally, our available cash is the sum of (i) all cash on hand at the end of a quarter after the payment of our expenses and the establishment of cash reserves and (ii) if the board of directors of our general partner so determines, all or any portion of additional cash on hand resulting from working capital borrowings made after the end of the quarter.

If we dissolve in accordance with our Partnership Agreement, we will sell or otherwise dispose of our assets in a process called liquidation. We will first apply the proceeds of liquidation to the payment of our creditors. We will distribute any remaining proceeds to the holders of common units and our general partner, in accordance with their capital account balances, as adjusted to reflect any gain or loss upon the sale or other disposition of our assets in liquidation, all in accordance with the terms of the Partnership Agreement.

Except as described below regarding a person or group owning 20% or more of any class of units then outstanding, record holders of units on the record date will be entitled to notice of, and to vote at, meetings of our limited partners and to act upon matters for which approvals may be solicited.

Our general partner does not anticipate that any meeting of unitholders will be called in the foreseeable future. Meetings of the unitholders may be called by our general partner or by unitholders owning at least 20% of the outstanding units of the class for which a meeting is proposed. The holders of a majority in voting power of the outstanding units of the class or classes for which a meeting has been called, represented in person or by proxy, will constitute a quorum unless any action by the unitholders requires approval by holders of a greater percentage of the units, in which case the quorum will be the greater percentage. For all matters presented to the limited partners at a meeting at which a quorum is present for which no minimum or other vote of the limited partners is specifically required pursuant to our Partnership Agreement, the rules and regulations of any national securities exchange on which the common units are admitted to trading, or applicable law or pursuant to any regulation applicable to us or our partnership interests, a majority of the votes cast by the limited partners holding outstanding common units will be deemed to constitute the act of all limited partners (with abstentions and broker non-votes being deemed to not have been cast with respect to such matter). The general partner interest does not entitle our general partner to any vote other than its rights as general partner under our Partnership Agreement, will not be entitled to vote on any action required or permitted to be taken by the unitholders and will not count toward or be considered outstanding when calculating required votes, determining the presence of a quorum, or for similar purposes.

Each record holder of a unit has a vote according to its percentage interest in us. However, if at any time any person or group, other than our general partner and its affiliates, a direct transferee of our general partner and its affiliates or a transferee of such direct transferee, who is notified by our general partner that it will not lose its voting rights, acquires, in the aggregate, beneficial ownership of 20% or more of any class of units then outstanding, that person or group will lose voting rights on all of its units and the units may not be voted on any matter and will not be considered to be outstanding when sending notices of a meeting of unitholders, calculating required votes, determining the presence of a quorum, or for other similar purposes.

Assuming that a limited partner does not participate in the control of our business within the meaning of the Delaware Act and that it otherwise acts in conformity with the provisions of our Partnership Agreement, its liability under the Delaware Act will be limited, subject to possible exceptions, to the amount of capital it is obligated to contribute to us for its common units plus its share of any undistributed profits and assets.

Our Partnership Agreement authorizes us to issue an unlimited number of additional partnership interests and options, rights, warrants and appreciation rights relating to the partnership interests for any partnership purpose at any time and from time to time to such persons for such consideration and on such terms and conditions as our general partner shall determine in its sole discretion, all without the approval of any partners.

In accordance with Delaware law and the provisions of our Partnership Agreement, we may also issue additional partnership interests that, as determined by our general partner, may have special voting rights to which the common units are not entitled. In addition, our Partnership Agreement does not prohibit the issuance by our subsidiaries of equity interests, which may effectively rank senior to the common units.

Amendments to our Partnership Agreement may be proposed only by our general partner. However, our general partner will have no duty or obligation to propose any amendment and may decline to do so free of any duty or obligation whatsoever to us or our limited partners, including any duty to act in the best interests of us or the limited partners, other than the implied contractual covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In order to adopt a proposed amendment, other than the amendments discussed below, our general partner is required to seek written approval of the holders of the number of units required to approve the amendment or call a meeting of the limited partners to consider and vote upon the proposed amendment. Except in a limited number of circumstances an amendment must be approved by a unit majority. Additionally, our general partner may generally make amendments to our Partnership Agreement without the approval of any limited partner in certain circumstances.

Our Partnership Agreement contains specific provisions that are intended to discourage a person or group from attempting to remove CNX Midstream GP LLC as our general partner or otherwise change our management. If any person or group other than our general partner and its affiliates acquires beneficial ownership of 20% or more of any class of units, that person or group loses voting rights on all of its units. This loss of voting rights does not apply to any person or group that acquires the units from our general partner or its affiliates and any transferees of that person or group who are notified by our general partner that they will not lose their voting rights or to any person or group who acquires the units with the prior approval of the board of directors of our general partner.

If at any time our general partner and its affiliates own more than 80% of the then-issued and outstanding limited partner interests of any class, our general partner will have the right, which it may assign in whole or in part to any of its affiliates or to us, to acquire all, but not less than all, of the limited partner interests of such class held by unaffiliated persons as of a record date to be selected by our general partner, on at least 10, but not more than 60, days’ written notice.

 

Our Partnership Agreement states that we will mail or make available to record holders of common units, within 90 days after the close of each fiscal year, an annual report containing audited financial statements and a report on those financial statements by our independent public accountants. Except for our fourth quarter, we will also mail or make available summary financial information within 45 days after the close of each quarter (or such shorter period as required by the SEC). We will furnish each record holder of a unit with information reasonably required for tax reporting purposes within 90 days after the close of each calendar year.

Our Partnership Agreement limits the right to information that a limited partner would otherwise have under Delaware law. Our Partnership Agreement does provide that a limited partner can, for a purpose reasonably related to its interest as a limited partner, upon reasonable written demand stating the purpose of such demand and at its own expense, have furnished to such limited partner, certain information regarding the status of our business and financial condition, in addition to certain information related to our record holders.