Description of Securities of the Registrant

EX-4.5 2 f10k2019ex4-5_schultze.htm DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES OF THE REGISTRANT

Exhibit 4.5

 

SCHULTZE SPECIAL PURPOSE ACQUISITION CORP.

 

DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES

 

The following summary of the material terms of the securities of Schultze Special Purpose Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation (“we,” “us,” “our” or “the company”), is not intended to be a complete summary of the rights and preferences of such securities and is subject to and qualified by reference to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and the warrant agreement, dated December 10, 2018, between the company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company (the “Warrant Agreement”), in each case incorporated by reference as exhibits to the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 (the “Report”), and applicable Delaware law, including the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL. We urge you to read our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and the Warrant Agreement in their entirety for a complete description of the rights and preferences of our securities.

 

Certain Terms

 

In this document, unless the context otherwise requires:

 

references to our “sponsor” refer to Schultze Special Purpose Acquisition Sponsor, LLC, a company affiliated with our executive officers;

 

references to “founders’ shares” refer to our shares of common stock initially purchased by our initial stockholders in private sales prior to our initial public offering;

 

references to “final prospectus” refer to the final prospectus for our initial public offering filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, on December 12, 2018;

 

references to “initial stockholders” refer to the holders of the founders’ shares prior to our initial public offering;

 

references to “common stock” refer to our common stock, par value $0.0001 per share;

 

references to our “public shares” refer to shares of our common stock which were sold as part of the units in our initial public offering and references to “public stockholders” refer to the holders of our public shares, including our sponsor, officers and directors to the extent they purchase public shares, provided that their status as “public stockholders” shall only exist with respect to such public shares;

 

references to “private placement warrants” refer to the warrants that were sold in a private placement simultaneously with the closing of our initial public offering; and

 

references to “management” or our “management team” refer to our officers and directors.

 

General

 

We are a blank check company incorporated in Delaware for the purpose of entering into a merger, stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, recapitalization, reorganization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities, which we refer to in this document as our initial business combination, and our affairs are governed by our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law, including the DGCL. As of the date of the Report, we are authorized to issue 100,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. As of the date of the Report, 16,250,000 shares of common stock are outstanding and no shares of preferred stock are outstanding. The following description summarizes the material terms of our securities. For a complete description you should refer to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and the Warrant Agreement, and to the applicable provisions of Delaware law. Because it is only a summary, it may not contain all the information that is important to you.

 

Units

 

Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of common stock. Holders will need to have their brokers contact our transfer agent in order to separate the units into shares of common stock and warrants. The warrants will become exercisable 30 days after the completion of an initial business combination and will expire on the fifth anniversary of our completion of an initial business combination, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. The shares of common stock and warrants began to trade separately on January 9, 2019, and holders have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component pieces.

  

 

 

 

Common Stock

 

As of the date of the Report, there were 16,250,000 shares of common stock outstanding, consisting of 13,000,000 public shares and 3,250,000 founders’ shares held by the initial stockholders.

 

Our stockholders of record are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by stockholders. In connection with any vote held to approve our initial business combination, our sponsor, as well as all of our officers and directors, have agreed to vote their respective shares of common stock owned by them in favor of the proposed business combination.

 

We will consummate our initial business combination only if we have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon such consummation and, solely if a vote is held to approve a business combination, a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination.

 

Our board of directors is divided into two classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year and each class (except for those directors appointed prior to our first annual meeting of stockholders) serving a two-year term. The term of office of the first class of directors, consisting of William G. LaPerch and William T. Allen, will expire at our first annual meeting of stockholders. The term of office of the second class of directors, consisting of George J. Schultze, Gary M. Julien and John J. Walker, will expire at the second annual meeting of stockholders. We may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination. There is no cumulative voting with respect to the election of directors, with the result that the holders of more than 50% of the shares eligible to vote for the election of directors can elect all of the directors.

 

Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, if we do not consummate an initial business combination by June 13, 2020, our corporate existence will cease except for the purposes of winding up our affairs and liquidating. If we are forced to liquidate prior to an initial business combination, our public stockholders are entitled to share ratably in the trust account, based on the amount then held in the trust account, and any assets remaining available for distribution to them. Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to waive their rights to participate in any liquidation distribution occurring upon our failure to consummate an initial business combination with respect to the founders’ shares. Our sponsor, officers and directors will therefore not participate in any liquidation distribution with respect to such shares. They will, however, participate in any liquidation distribution with respect to any shares of common stock acquired in connection with or following our initial public offering.

 

Our stockholders have no conversion, preemptive or other subscription rights and there are no sinking fund or redemption provisions applicable to the shares of common stock, except that public stockholders have the right to sell their shares to us in a tender offer or have their shares of common stock converted to cash equal to their pro rata share of the trust account if they vote on the proposed business combination in connection with such business combination and the business combination is completed. Public stockholders who sell or convert their stock into their share of the trust account still have the right to exercise the warrants that they received as part of the units.

 

Founders’ Shares

 

The holders of the founders’ shares have agreed (i) that such shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below and (ii) (A) to waive their redemption rights with respect to the founders’ shares and public shares in connection with the completion of our business combination and (B) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to the founders’ shares if we fail to complete our business combination by June 13, 2020, although our initial stockholders (or any of our executive officers, directors or affiliates) will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares acquired if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time period. If we submit our business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our initial stockholders have agreed to vote their founders’ shares and any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination and our executive officers and directors have also agreed to vote any public shares purchased during or after our initial public offering in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, we would need only 4,875,001, or approximately 37.5%, of the 13,000,000 public shares sold in our initial public offering to be voted in favor of a transaction in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all shares were present and entitled to vote at the meeting). Permitted transferees of our sponsor will be subject to the same obligations of our sponsor.

 

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Subject to certain limited exceptions, none of their founders’ shares will be transferred, assigned or sold until the earlier of (i) one year after the date of the consummation of our initial business combination or (ii) the date on which the closing price of our common stock equals or exceeds $12.50 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations and recapitalizations) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period.

 

Preferred Stock

 

There are no shares of preferred stock outstanding. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of 1,000,000 shares of preferred stock with such designation, rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by our board of directors. No shares of preferred stock were issued or registered in our initial public offering. Accordingly, our board of directors is empowered, without stockholder approval, to issue preferred stock with dividend, liquidation, conversion, voting or other rights which could adversely affect the voting power or other rights of the holders of common stock. However, the underwriting agreement prohibits us, prior to a business combination, from issuing preferred stock which participates in any manner in the proceeds of the trust account, or which votes as a class with the common stock on a business combination. We may issue some or all of the preferred stock to effect a business combination. In addition, the preferred stock could be utilized as a method of discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control of us. Although we do not currently intend to issue any shares of preferred stock, we cannot assure you that we will not do so in the future.

 

Warrants

 

Public Stockholders’ Warrants

 

As of the date of the Report, there were 17,150,000 warrants to purchase our common stock outstanding, including 13,000,000 public warrants and 4,150,000 private placement warrants. Each warrant entitles the registered holder to purchase one share of common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as discussed below, at any time commencing 30 days after the completion of an initial business combination. No warrants are exercisable for cash unless we have an effective and current registration statement covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to such shares of common stock. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if a registration statement covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the public warrants is not effective within 90 days following the consummation of our initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we shall have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a cashless basis pursuant to the exemption provided by Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, provided that such exemption is available. If that exemption, or another exemption, is not available, holders will not be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the “fair market value” (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” for this purpose will mean the average reported last sale price of the shares of common stock for the 5 trading days ending on the trading day prior to the date of exercise. The warrants will expire on the fifth anniversary of our completion of an initial business combination, at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.

 

We may call the warrants for redemption (excluding the private placement warrants, and any warrants issued to our sponsor, officers or directors in payment of working capital loans made to us), in whole and not in part, at a price of $0.01 per warrant,

 

  at any time during the exercise period,

 

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  upon not less than 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each warrant holder,

 

  if, and only if, the reported last sale price of the shares of common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations and recapitalizations), for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading day period ending on the third business day prior to the notice of redemption to warrant holders; and

 

  if, and only if, there is a current registration statement in effect with respect to the shares of common stock underlying such warrants.

 

The right to exercise will be forfeited unless the warrants are exercised prior to the date specified in the notice of redemption. On and after the redemption date, a record holder of a warrant will have no further rights except to receive the redemption price for such holder’s warrant upon surrender of such warrant.

 

The redemption criteria for our warrants have been established at a price which is intended to provide warrant holders a reasonable premium to the initial exercise price and provide a sufficient differential between the then-prevailing share price and the warrant exercise price so that if the share price declines as a result of our redemption call, the redemption will not cause the share price to drop below the exercise price of the warrants.

 

If we call the warrants for redemption as described above, our management will have the option to require all holders that wish to exercise warrants to do so on a “cashless basis.” In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the “fair market value” (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” shall mean the average reported last sale price of the shares of common stock for the 5 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants.

 

The warrants were issued in registered form under the Warrant Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The Warrant Agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval, by written consent or vote, of the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding warrants in order to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders.

 

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The exercise price and number of shares of common stock issuable on exercise of the warrants may be adjusted in certain circumstances including in the event of a stock dividend, extraordinary dividend or our recapitalization, reorganization, merger or consolidation. However, the warrants will not be adjusted for issuances of shares of common stock at a price below their respective exercise prices.

 

In addition, if  (x) we issue additional shares of common stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at a Newly Issued Price (as described in our final prospectus) of less than $9.50 per share of common stock (with such issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by our board of directors, and in the case of any such issuance to our sponsor or its affiliates, without taking into account any founders’ shares held by the sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from such issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the consummation of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the Market Value (as described in our final prospectus) is below $9.50 per share, the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price.

 

The warrants may be exercised upon surrender of the warrant certificate on or prior to the expiration date at the offices of the warrant agent, with the exercise form on the reverse side of the warrant certificate completed and executed as indicated, accompanied by full payment of the exercise price, by certified or official bank check payable to us, for the number of warrants being exercised. The warrant holders do not have the rights or privileges of holders of shares of common stock and any voting rights until they exercise their warrants and receive shares of common stock. After the issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of the warrants, each holder will be entitled to one vote for each share held of record on all matters to be voted on by stockholders.

 

Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, we have agreed to use our best efforts to have declared effective a prospectus relating to the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and keep such prospectus current until the expiration of the warrants. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so and, if we do not maintain a current prospectus relating to the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants, holders will be unable to exercise their warrants for cash and we will not be required to net cash settle or cash settle the warrant exercise.

 

Warrant holders may elect to be subject to a restriction on the exercise of their warrants such that an electing warrant holder would not be able to exercise their warrants to the extent that, after giving effect to such exercise, such holder would beneficially own in excess of 9.8% of the shares of common stock outstanding.

 

No fractional shares will be issued upon exercise of the warrants. If, by reason of any adjustment made pursuant to the Warrant Agreement, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round up to the nearest whole number the number of shares of common stock to be issued to the warrant holder.

 

Private Placement Warrants

 

The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants underlying the units sold in our initial public offering, except that, if held by the original holder or their permitted assigns, they (i) may be exercised on a cashless basis, (ii) are not subject to redemption and (iii) subject to certain limited exceptions, will be subject to transfer restrictions until after the completion of our initial business combination. 

 

If holders of the private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering his, her or its warrants for that number of shares of common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the difference between the exercise price of the warrants and the “fair market value” (defined below) by (y) the fair market value. The “fair market value” shall mean the average reported last sale price of the common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent. The reason that we have agreed that these warrants will be exercisable on a cashless basis so long as they are held by our sponsor and permitted transferees is because it is not known at this time whether they will be affiliated with us following a business combination. If they remain affiliated with us, their ability to sell our securities in the open market will be significantly limited. We expect to have policies in place that prohibit insiders from selling our securities except during specific periods of time. Even during such periods of time when insiders will be permitted to sell our securities, an insider cannot trade in our securities if he or she is in possession of material non-public information. Accordingly, unlike public stockholders who could exercise their warrants and sell the shares of common stock received upon such exercise freely in the open market in order to recoup the cost of such exercise, the insiders could be significantly restricted from selling such securities. As a result, we believe that allowing the holders to exercise such warrants on a cashless basis is appropriate.

 

Dividends

 

We have not paid any cash dividends on our common stock to date and do not intend to pay cash dividends prior to the completion of an initial business combination. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, if any, capital requirements and general financial condition subsequent to completion of a business combination. The payment of any dividends subsequent to a business combination will be within the discretion of our board of directors at such time. It is the present intention of our board of directors to retain all earnings, if any, for use in our business operations and, accordingly, our board of directors does not anticipate declaring any dividends in the foreseeable future. Further, if we incur any indebtedness, our ability to declare dividends may be limited by restrictive covenants we may agree to in connection therewith.

 

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Our Transfer Agent and Warrant Agent

 

The transfer agent for our securities and warrant agent for our warrants is Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, One State Street, New York, New York 10004.

 

Listing of our Securities

 

Our units, common stock and warrants are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “SAMAU,” “SAMA” and “SAMAW,” respectively.

 

Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of Delaware Law and our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws

 

Staggered board of directors

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our board of directors is classified into two classes of directors of approximately equal size. As a result, in most circumstances, a person can gain control of our board only by successfully engaging in a proxy contest at two or more annual meetings. Furthermore, because our board is classified, directors may be removed only with cause by a majority of our outstanding shares.

 

Special meeting of stockholders

 

Our bylaws provide that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority vote of our board of directors, by our Chief Executive Officer or by our Chairman.

 

Action by written consent

 

Under Delaware law, stockholder action may be taken by written consent in lieu of a meeting unless the existing charter expressly prohibits action by consent. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits stockholder action by written consent. Prohibiting action by written consent is expected to protect the company from unwarranted actions by stockholders so management can focus on the company’s search for a business combination.

 

Advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and director nominations

 

Our bylaws provide that stockholders seeking to bring business before our annual meeting of stockholders, or to nominate candidates for election as directors at our annual meeting of stockholders, must provide timely notice of their intent in writing. To be timely, a stockholder’s notice will need to be received by the company secretary at our principal executive offices not later than the close of business on the 90th day nor earlier than the open of business on the 120th day prior to the anniversary date of the immediately preceding annual meeting of stockholders. Pursuant to Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, proposals seeking inclusion in our annual proxy statement must comply with the notice periods contained therein. Our bylaws also specify certain requirements as to the form and content of a stockholders’ meeting. These provisions may preclude our stockholders from bringing matters before our annual meeting of stockholders or from making nominations for directors at our annual meeting of stockholders.

 

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Authorized but unissued shares

 

Our authorized but unissued common stock and preferred stock are available for future issuances without stockholder approval and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved common stock and preferred stock could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.

 

Exclusive forum selection

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against directors, officers and employees for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel; provided that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction; and provided further that, if and only if the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware dismisses any such action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, such action may be brought in another state or federal court sitting in the State of Delaware. Furthermore, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Although we believe this provision benefits our company by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, a court may determine that this provision is unenforceable, and to the extent it is enforceable, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

 

Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law

 

We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL regulating corporate takeovers. This statute prevents certain Delaware corporations, under certain circumstances, from engaging in a “business combination” with:

 

  a stockholder who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock (otherwise known as an “interested stockholder”);

 

  an affiliate of an interested stockholder; or

 

  an associate of an interested stockholder, for three years following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder.

 

A “business combination” includes a merger or sale of more than 10% of our assets. However, the above provisions of Section 203 do not apply if:

 

  our board of directors approves the transaction that made the stockholder an “interested stockholder,” prior to the date of the transaction;

 

  after the completion of the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, that stockholder owned at least 85% of our voting stock outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, other than statutorily excluded shares of common stock; or

 

  on or subsequent to the date of the transaction, the business combination is approved by our board of directors and authorized at a meeting of our stockholders, and not by written consent, by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting stock not owned by the interested stockholder.

 

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Limitation on Liability and Indemnification of Directors and Officers

 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors and officers will be indemnified by us to the fullest extent authorized by Delaware law as it now exists or may in the future be amended. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors will not be personally liable for monetary damages to us for breaches of their fiduciary duty as directors, unless they violated their duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders, acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized unlawful payments of dividends, unlawful stock purchases or unlawful redemptions, or derived an improper personal benefit from their actions as directors.

 

Our bylaws also permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director or employee for any liability arising out of his or her actions, regardless of whether Delaware law would permit indemnification. We may purchase a policy of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance that insures our directors and officers against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment in some circumstances and insures us against our obligations to indemnify the directors and officers.

 

These provisions may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against directors and officers, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions. We believe that these provisions, the insurance and the indemnity agreements are necessary to attract and retain talented and experienced directors and officers.

 

Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to our directors, officers and controlling persons pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, we have been advised that in the opinion of the SEC such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable.

 

 

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