Description of Capital Stock

EX-4.2 2 exhibit42-descriptionofcap.htm EX-4.2 Document

DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK

The following description of the capital stock of The Vita Coco Company, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) and certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended from time to time (the “amended and restated certificate of incorporation”) and amended and restated bylaws, as amended from time to time (the “amended and restated bylaws”) is a summary and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and applicable provisions of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “Delaware General Corporation Law”). Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes capital stock consisting of:


			•						500,000,000 shares of common stock, par value of $0.01 per share, and


			•						10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value of $0.01 per share.

Common Stock

Voting Rights

Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. The holders of our common stock will vote together as a single class, unless otherwise required by law. The holders of our common stock do not have cumulative voting rights in the election of directors.

Dividend Rights

The holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends out of funds legally available if our board of directors, in its discretion, determines to issue dividends and then only at the times and in the amounts that our board of directors may determine.

No Preemptive or Similar Rights

Our common stock is not entitled to preemptive rights and is not subject to redemption or sinking fund provisions. The rights, preferences and privileges of the holders of our common stock will be subject to and may be adversely affected by the rights of the holders of shares of any series of our preferred stock that we may designate in the future.

Right to Receive Liquidation Distributions

Upon our liquidation, dissolution, or winding up, the assets legally available for distribution to our stockholders would be distributable ratably among the holders of our common stock and any participating preferred stock outstanding at that time, subject to the prior satisfaction of all outstanding debt and liabilities and the preferential rights of and the payment of liquidation preferences, if any, on any shares of preferred stock outstanding at that time.

Fully Paid and Nonassessable

All of our outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and nonassessable.

Preferred Stock

Pursuant to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our board of directors is authorized, subject to limitations prescribed by Delaware law, to issue preferred stock in one or more series, to establish from time to time the number of shares to be included in each series, and to fix the designation, powers, preferences, and rights of the shares of each series and any of its qualifications, limitations, or restrictions, in each case without further vote or action by our stockholders. Our board of directors can also increase or decrease the number of shares of any series of preferred stock, but not below the number of shares of that series then outstanding, without any further vote or action by our stockholders. Our board of directors may authorize the issuance of preferred stock with voting or

conversion rights that could adversely affect the voting power or other rights of the holders of our common stock. The issuance of preferred stock, while providing flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, could, among other things, have the effect of delaying, deferring, or preventing a change in control of our company and might adversely affect the market price of our common stock and the voting and other rights of the holders of our common stock.

Registration Rights

We entered into a Registration Rights Agreement with certain of our stockholders in connection with our initial public pursuant to which such parties have certain demand rights, short-form registration rights and piggyback registration rights from us, subject to customary restrictions and exceptions. All fees, costs and expenses of registrations, other than underwriting discounts and commissions, are expected to be borne by us. The Registration Rights Agreement does not provide for any maximum cash penalties or any penalties connected with delays in registering our common stock.

Anti-Takeover Provisions

The provisions of Delaware law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws could have the effect of delaying, deferring, or discouraging another person from acquiring control of our company. These provisions, which are summarized below, may have the effect of discouraging takeover bids. They are also designed, in part, to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to negotiate first with our board of directors. We believe that the benefits of increased protection of our potential ability to negotiate with an unfriendly or unsolicited acquirer outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging a proposal to acquire us because negotiation of these proposals could result in an improvement of their terms.

Public Benefit Corporation Status

We are a public benefit corporation under Section 362 of the Delaware General Corporation Law.

As a public benefit corporation, our board of directors is required by the Delaware General Corporation Law to manage or direct our business and affairs in a manner that balances the pecuniary interests of our stockholders, the best interests of those materially affected by our conduct, and the specific public benefits identified in our certificate of incorporation. Under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our stockholders may bring a derivative suit to enforce this requirement only if they own (individually or collectively), at least 2% of our outstanding shares or, upon our listing, the lesser of such percentage or shares of at least $2 million in market value.

We believe that our public benefit corporation status will make it more difficult for another party to obtain control of us without maintaining our public benefit corporation status and purpose.

Section 203 of the DGCL

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains a provision opting out of Section 203 of the DGCL. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that are similar to Section 203. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to certain exceptions, we will not be able to engage in a “business combination” with any “interested stockholder” for a period of three years following the date such person became an interested stockholder, unless the interested stockholder attained such status with the approval of our board of directors or unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. A “business combination” includes, among other things, a merger or consolidation involving us and the “interested stockholder” and the sale of more than 10% of our assets. In general, an “interested stockholder” is any entity or person beneficially owning 15% or more of a corporation’s outstanding voting stock and any entity or person affiliated with or controlling or controlled by such entity or person.

However, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, neither Verlinvest Beverages SA nor any of its affiliates are deemed to be interested stockholders regardless of the percentage of our outstanding voting stock owned by them, and accordingly are not be subject to such restrictions.

Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaw Provisions

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws include a number of provisions that could deter hostile takeovers or delay or prevent changes in control of our management team, including the following:


			•						Board of Directors Vacancies. Verlinvest, Mr. Kirban and Mr. Liran, in the case of their board nominees, have the power to fill any vacancy caused by the removal or departure of their director. In all other cases, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws authorize only our board of directors to fill vacant directorships, including newly created seats. In addition, the number of directors constituting our board of directors is permitted to be set only by a resolution adopted by a majority vote of our entire board of directors. These provisions would prevent a stockholder from increasing the size of our board of directors and then gaining control of our board of directors by filling the resulting vacancies with its own nominees. This makes it more difficult to change the composition of our board of directors but promotes continuity of management.
			•						Classified Board. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors. The existence of a classified board of directors could discourage a third party from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us as it is more difficult and time consuming for stockholders to replace a majority of the directors on a classified board of directors.


			•						Removal of Directors. Pursuant to the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement, directors nominated by may be removed with or without cause by the affirmative vote of entitled to nominate such director. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, in all other cases and at any other time, directors may only be removed for cause by the affirmative of at least a majority of the voting power of our common stock.


			•						Supermajority Requirements for Amendments of Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that the affirmative vote of holders of at least two-thirds of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of voting stock is required to amend certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, including provisions relating to the classified board, the size of the board, removal of directors, special meetings, actions by written consent, and designation of our preferred stock. The affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of voting stock is required to amend or repeal our amended and restated bylaws, although our amended and restated bylaws may be amended by a simple majority vote of our board of directors.


			•						Stockholder Action; Special Meeting of Stockholders. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority of our board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors, our lead independent director, or our chief executive officer. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our stockholders may not take action by written consent, but may only take action at annual or special meetings of our stockholders. As a result, holders of our capital stock would not be able to amend our amended and amended and restated bylaws or remove directors without holding a meeting of our stockholders called in accordance with our restated bylaws. Further, our amended and restated bylaws provides that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority of our board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors, our lead independent director, or our chief executive officer, thus prohibiting a stockholder from calling a special meeting. These provisions might delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or for stockholders to take any action, including the removal of directors.


			•						Advance Notice Requirements for Stockholder Proposals and Director Nominations. Our amended and restated bylaws provides advance notice procedures for 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. Our amended and restated bylaws also specifies certain requirements regarding the form and content of a stockholder’s notice. These provisions might preclude our stockholders from bringing matters before our annual meeting of stockholders or from making nominations for directors at our annual meeting of stockholders if the proper procedures are not followed. We expect that these provisions might also discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company.


			•						No Cumulative Voting. The DGCL provides that stockholders are not entitled to the right to cumulate votes in the election of directors unless a corporation’s certificate of incorporation
									provides otherwise. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws do not provide for cumulative voting.


			•						Issuance of Undesignated Preferred Stock. Our board of directors has the authority, without further action by the stockholders, to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock with rights and preferences, including voting rights, designated from time to time by our board of directors. The existence of authorized but unissued shares of preferred stock enables our board of directors to render more difficult or to discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a merger, tender offer, proxy contest, or other means.


			•						Choice of Forum. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, (A)(i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of us, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers, other employees or stockholders to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws (as either may be amended or restated) or as to which the DGCL confers exclusive jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the law of the State of Delaware shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be exclusively brought in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or, if such court does not have subject matter jurisdiction thereof, the federal district court of the State of Delaware, and (B) 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. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the exclusive forum provision shall not apply to claims seeking to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation also provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing. By agreeing to this provision, however, stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Limitations on Liability and Indemnification Matters

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we will indemnify each of our directors and executive officers to the fullest extent permitted by the DGCL. We have entered into indemnification agreements with each of our directors and executive officers that may, in some cases, be broader than the specific indemnification provisions contained under Delaware law. Further, pursuant to our indemnification agreements and directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, our directors and executive officers are indemnified and insured against the cost of defense, settlement or payment of a judgment under certain circumstances. In addition, as permitted by Delaware law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation includes provisions that eliminate the personal liability of our directors for monetary damages resulting from breaches of certain fiduciary duties as a director. The effect of this provision is to restrict our rights and the rights of our stockholders in derivative suits to recover monetary damages against a director for breach of fiduciary duties as a director.

These provisions may be held not to be enforceable for violations of the federal securities laws of the United States.

Transfer Agent and Registrar

The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC.

Listing

Our common stock has been approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “COCO.”