Description of Common Units

EX-4.1 2 uan201910-kexhibit41.htm EX-4.1 Document
Exhibit 4.1
DESCRIPTION OF COMMON UNITS

General

Our common units represent limited partner interests in us. The holders of units are entitled to participate in partnership distributions and exercise the rights or privileges available to limited partners under our partnership agreement (as defined below).

This description is a summary only and does not purport to be complete. We encourage you to read the complete text of our amended and restated certificate of limited partnership and amended and restated partnership agreement (our “partnership agreement”), which we have filed or incorporated by reference as exhibits to our Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Cash Distributions

We expect to make distributions generally within 60 days after the end of each quarter as determined by the board of directors of our general partner, to unitholders of record on the applicable record date.

Common Units Eligible for Distribution. Each common unit is allocated a portion of our income, gain, loss, deduction and credit on a pro-rata basis, and each common unit will be entitled to receive distributions (including upon liquidation) in the same manner as each other common unit.

Method of Distributions. We will pay distributions pursuant to our general partner’s determination of the amount of available cash for the applicable quarter, which we then distribute to our unitholders as of a fixed record date on a pro rata basis. However, our partnership agreement allows us to issue an unlimited number of additional equity interests of equal or senior rank. Our partnership agreement permits us to borrow to make distributions, but we are not required and do not intend to borrow to pay quarterly distributions. Accordingly, there is no guarantee that we will pay any distribution on the units in any quarter. We do not have a legal obligation to pay distributions, and the amount of distributions paid under our cash distribution policy and the decision to make any distribution is determined by the board of directors of our general partner.

General Partner Interest. Our general partner owns a non-economic general partner interest and is not entitled to receive cash distributions. However, it may acquire common units and other equity interests in the future and will be entitled to receive pro rata distributions therefrom.

Adjustments to Capital Accounts Upon Issuance of Additional Common Units. We will make adjustments to capital accounts upon the issuance of additional common units. In doing so, we will generally allocate any unrealized and, for tax purposes, unrecognized gain or loss resulting from the adjustments to our unitholders prior to such issuance on a pro rata basis, so that after such issuance, the capital account balances attributable to all common units are equal.

Issuance of Additional Partnership Interests

Our partnership agreement authorizes us to issue an unlimited number of additional partnership interests for the consideration and on the terms and conditions determined by our general partner without the approval of the unitholders.

It is possible that we will fund acquisitions through the issuance of additional common units or other partnership interests. Holders of any additional common units we issue will be entitled to share equally with the then-existing holders of common units in our quarterly cash distributions. In addition, the issuance of additional common units or other partnership interests may dilute the value of the interests of the then-existing holders of common units in our net assets.

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, have special voting rights to which the common units are not entitled or are senior in right of distribution to the common units. In addition, our partnership
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agreement does not prohibit the issuance by our subsidiary of equity interests, which may effectively rank senior to the common units.

Our general partner will have the right, which it may from time to time assign in whole or in part to any of its affiliates, to purchase common units, whenever, and on the same terms that, we issue those interests to persons other than our general partner and its affiliates, to the extent necessary to maintain its and its affiliates’ percentage interest, including such interest represented by common units, that existed immediately prior to each issuance. The holders of common units will not have preemptive rights under our partnership agreement to acquire additional common units or other partnership interests.

Merger, Sale or Other Disposition of Assets

A merger or consolidation or conversion of us requires the prior consent of our general partner. However, our general partner has no duty or obligation to consent to any merger or consolidation and may decline to do so free of any fiduciary duty or obligation whatsoever to us or other partners, including any duty to act in good faith or in the best interest of us or the other partners.

In addition, our partnership agreement generally prohibits our general partner, without the prior approval of the holders of a unit majority, from causing us to sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets in a single transaction or a series of related transactions, including by way of merger, consolidation or other combination. Our general partner may, however, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate or grant a security interest in all or substantially all of our assets without that approval. Our general partner may also sell all or substantially all of our assets under a foreclosure or other realization upon those encumbrances without that approval.

Finally, our general partner may consummate any merger without the prior approval of our unitholders if we are the surviving entity in the transaction, our general partner has received an opinion of counsel regarding limited liability and tax matters, the transaction would not result in a material amendment to the partnership agreement (other than an amendment that the general partner could adopt without the consent of other partners), each of our common units will be an identical unit of our partnership following the transaction and the partnership securities to be issued do not exceed 20% of our outstanding partnership interests immediately prior to the transaction.

If the conditions specified in our partnership agreement are satisfied, our general partner may convert us or our subsidiaries into a new limited liability entity or merge us or our subsidiaries into, or convey all of our assets to, a newly formed entity, if the sole purpose of that conversion, merger or conveyance is to effect a mere change in our legal form into another limited liability entity, we have received an opinion of counsel regarding limited liability and tax matters and the governing instruments of the new entity provide the limited partners and our general partner with the same rights and obligations as contained in our partnership agreement. Our unitholders are not entitled to dissenters’ rights of appraisal under our partnership agreement or applicable Delaware law in the event of a conversion, merger or consolidation, a sale of substantially all of our assets or any other similar transaction or event.

Call Right

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 the class held by public unitholders, as of a record date to be selected by our general partner, on at least 10 but not more than 60 days’ notice. The only class of limited partner interest outstanding is the common units, and affiliates of our general partner currently own approximately 34% of the total outstanding common units.


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The purchase price in the event of such an acquisition will be the greater of:
the highest price paid by our general partner or any of its affiliates for any limited partner interests of the class purchased within the 90 days preceding the date on which our general partner first mails notice of its election to purchase those limited partner interests; and
the average of the daily closing prices of the limited partner interests over the 20 trading days preceding the date three days before notice of exercise of the call right is first mailed.

As a result of our general partner’s right to purchase outstanding common units, a holder of common units may have its common units purchased at an undesirable time or at a price that may be lower than market prices at various times prior to such purchase or lower than a unitholder may anticipate the market price to be in the future. The U.S. federal income tax consequences to a unitholder of the exercise of this call right are the same as a sale by that unitholder of his common units in the market.

Transfer of Common Units

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 is 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.

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

Voting Rights

The following is a summary of the unitholder vote required for the matters specified below. Matters requiring the approval of a “unit majority” require the approval of majority of the common units.

In voting their common units, our general partner and its affiliates will have no fiduciary duty or obligation whatsoever to us or the limited partners, including any duty to act in good faith or in the best interests of us or the limited partners. The holders of a majority of the common units (including common units deemed owned by our general partner) represented in person or by proxy shall constitute a quorum at a meeting of such common unitholders, unless any such action requires approval by holders of a greater percentage of such units in which case the quorum shall be such greater percentage.


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The following is a summary of the vote requirements specified for certain matters under our partnership agreement:

Issuance of additional partnership interestsNo approval right.
Amendment of our partnership agreement Certain amendments may be made by our general partner without the approval of the common unitholders. Other amendments generally require the approval of a unit majority.
 
Merger of our partnership or the sale of all or substantially all of our assets Unit majority in certain circumstances.
 
Dissolution of our partnership Unit majority.
 
Continuation of our partnership upon dissolution Unit majority.
 
Withdrawal of our general partner Under most circumstances, the approval of a majority of the common units, excluding common units held by our general partner and its affiliates, is required for the withdrawal of our general partner prior to March 31, 2021.
 
Removal of our general partner Not less than 66 2/3% of the outstanding common units, including common units held by our general partner and its affiliates.
 
Transfer of the general partner interest Our general partner may transfer all, but not less than all, of its general partner interest in us without a vote of our unitholders to an affiliate or another person in connection with its merger or consolidation with or into, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets to, such person. The approval of a majority of the common units, excluding common units held by our general partner and its affiliates, is required in other circumstances for a transfer of the general partner interest to a third party prior to March 31, 2021.
 
Transfer of ownership interests in our general partner No approval required at any time.

Listing

Our common units are traded on the NYSE under the symbol “UAN.”

Transfer Agent and Registrar

American Stock Transfer & Trust Company serves as registrar and transfer agent for the common units.

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