Initial Public Offering (a) In the event that at any time after the date hereof, the Board of Directors determines that it shall facilitate an offering of Equity Securities in the Company or a successor through an Initial Public Offering, then the Board of Directors shall have the power to cause the Company to be reorganized as a corporation (such corporation or other issuer entity being hereinafter referred to as a “Public Vehicle”) under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware by incorporation, merger, conversion, contribution, formation of a corporate Subsidiary or other permissible manner (a “Conversion”), and the Members shall use their commercially reasonable efforts to effectuate such Conversion and take such actions as are reasonably necessary or desirable to complete the Initial Public Offering in a manner designed to achieve a fair price and broad public distribution of the securities being offered in the Initial Public Offering.
(b) If applicable, the Members holding Units shall receive, in exchange for their Units of a particular class, shares of stock in the Public Vehicle of the relevant class having the same relative seniority, preference, accumulated dividends, dividend rate, dividend accumulation and compounding and, in the case of the Class A Units, the other characteristics of the Class A Units, voting, management and consent rights, economic interest and other rights and obligations (and in no event shall such interest, rights or obligations be less favorable to such Member than the terms of their respective Units) in the Public Vehicle as are set forth in this Agreement applicable to the Units, subject to any modifications deemed appropriate by the Board of Directors as a result of the Conversion or if advisable in order to effectuate the Initial Public Offering.
(c) In such event, the Public Vehicle and the Members (in their capacities as stockholders of the Public Vehicle) shall enter into a stockholders’ agreement providing for such terms and conditions as are necessary for the rights and obligations and provisions of this Agreement that survive an Initial Public Offering (and do not otherwise adversely affect the ability to effectuate the Initial Public Offering) to continue to apply to the Public Vehicle, the stockholders of the Public Vehicle and the capital stock of the Public Vehicle, including (i) an agreement to vote all shares of capital stock held by such stockholders to elect the Board of Directors of such resulting corporation in accordance with the substance of Section 6.1, and (ii) the rights and obligations of the Members contained herein (which may, at the election of the holders of a Majority Class A Interest, be contained in the Public Vehicle’s certificate of incorporation).
(d) Except as otherwise provided in this Section 3.8, no Member will have the right or power to veto, vote for or against, amend, modify or delay a Conversion or the Initial Public Offering. In furtherance of the foregoing, each Member hereby makes, constitutes and appoints the Company its true and lawful attorney, for it and in its name, place and stead and for its use and benefit, to act as its proxy in respect of any vote or approval of Members required to give effect to this Section 3.8, including any vote or approval required under the Act. The proxy granted pursuant to this Section 3.8(d) is a special proxy coupled with an interest and is irrevocable.
(e) The Company and the Members hereby agree to use their commercially reasonable efforts to structure the Conversion to maximize the ability of the Members to aggregate (or “tack”) the period during which they hold their Units together with the period during which they hold shares of capital stock of the Public Vehicle for purposes of the United States securities laws, including Rule 144 under the Securities Act.
(f) Each Member (including any Transferee thereof) agrees, if requested by the Company and a managing underwriter, if any, in connection with any Initial Public Offering and upon confirmation reasonably satisfactory to such Member that all officers and directors of the Company and all holders, collectively with their Affiliates and Approved Funds, of one percent (1%) or greater of Equity Securities of the Company shall enter into similar agreements, thereby agreeing not to Transfer any Equity Securities of the Company held by it for one hundred eighty (180) days following the effective date of the relevant registration statement filed under the Securities Act in connection with the Initial Public Offering, as such managing underwriter shall specify reasonably and in good faith. Each Member shall enter into customary letter agreements to the foregoing effect if so, requested by the Company and the managing underwriter, if any. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event any Member is released by the Company and the managing underwriter, if any, from the restrictions contemplated by this Section 3.8(f), all other Members shall be released from such restrictions pro-rata.
(g) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth in this Agreement, the restrictions contained in this Agreement shall not apply to Units, any other Equity Securities or any securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable for Units or other Equity Securities acquired by any Member, including acquired by any of their respective Affiliates or Approved Funds, following the effective date of the first registration statement of the Company covering common stock (or other securities) to be sold on behalf of the Company in an underwritten public offering.
Public Offering The Company is advised by you that the Underwriters propose to make a public offering of their respective portions of the Securities as soon after the Registration Statement and this Agreement have become effective as in your judgment is advisable. The Company is further advised by you that the Securities are to be offered to the public upon the terms set forth in the Prospectus.
Public Offering Price Except as otherwise noted in the Issuer’s current Prospectus and/or Statement of Additional Information, all shares sold to investors by Distributors or the Issuer will be sold at the public offering price. The public offering price for all accepted subscriptions will be the net asset value per share, as determined in the manner described in the Issuer’s current Prospectus and/or Statement of Additional Information, plus a sales charge (if any) described in the Issuer’s current Prospectus and/or Statement of Additional Information. The Issuer shall in all cases receive the net asset value per share on all sales. If a sales charge is in effect, Distributors shall have the right subject to such rules or regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission as may then be in effect pursuant to Section 22 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 to pay a portion of the sales charge to dealers who have sold shares of the Issuer. If a fee in connection with shareholder redemptions is in effect, the Issuer shall collect the fee and, unless otherwise agreed upon by the Issuer and Distributors, the Issuer shall be entitled to receive all of such fees.
Public Offering of the Offered Shares The Representatives hereby advise the Company that the Underwriters intend to offer for sale to the public, initially on the terms set forth in the Registration Statement, the Time of Sale Prospectus and the Prospectus, their respective portions of the Offered Shares as soon after this Agreement has been executed as the Representatives, in their sole judgment, have determined is advisable and practicable.
Sale of Units On the basis of the representations and warranties herein contained, but subject to the terms and conditions herein set forth, you agree to sell the Units on a “best efforts” basis, as agent for the Fund. You are authorized to enlist other members of FINRA (“Soliciting Dealers”), acceptable to the Fund, to sell the Units. As compensation for these services, the Fund agrees that it will pay you a selling commission in an amount equal to 9% of the offering price of the Units sold pursuant to the terms of this Agreement, from which you may reallow a dealer commission of up to 7.5% of such offering price. In addition to such selling commissions, the Fund or the Manager will pay or reimburse to you or participating broker dealers an amount up to 1% of the Gross Proceeds as additional selling compensation in the form of underwriters’ expenses borne by the Fund, the Manager or their affiliates, as described in the following paragraph. You will pay wholesaling compensation to your personnel out of the selling commissions you will receive hereunder. Aggregate selling compensation paid in connection with the offering, will not exceed a total equal to 10% of the Gross Proceeds. It is understood that the Fund may pay or reimburse you and participating dealers a portion of their “underwriters’ expenses” incurred in connection with the offering, and the Fund, the Manager or their Affiliates may bear certain other expenses directly that may be deemed “underwriters’ expenses.” These underwriters’ expenses include amounts paid by the Fund, the Manager or its Affiliates to you and participating broker dealers relating to sales seminar costs and expenses; advertising and promotion expenses; travel, food and lodging costs; telephone expenses; and an allocable portion of any of your salary expenses and legal fees borne by the Manager or its Affiliates. All of such amounts paid to you or participating broker dealers, all underwriters’ expenses borne on behalf of you or any participating broker dealer by the Fund or any other party on its behalf, and all selling commissions are together deemed “underwriting compensation” paid in connection with the offering. The total of all underwriting compensation, including sales commissions, wholesaling salaries and commissions, retail and wholesaling expense reimbursements, seminar expenses and any other underwriters’ expenses or other forms of compensation paid to or for you or participating broker-dealers, will not exceed 10% of the Gross Proceeds. In addition to such selling compensation, the Fund may reimburse the Soliciting Dealers for their bona fide and accountable expenses for due diligence purposes; provided, however, that any such payment or reimbursement will be made only upon presentation of detailed, itemized invoices for such bona fide due diligence expenses. Bona fide due diligence expenses will include actual costs incurred by broker-dealers to review the business, financial statements, transactions, and investments of ATEL and its prior programs to determine the accuracy and completeness of information provided in the Prospectus, the suitability of the investment for their clients and the integrity and management expertise of ATEL and its personnel. Costs may include telephone, postage and similar communication costs incurred in communicating with ATEL personnel, and ATEL’s outside accountants and counsel in this pursuit; travel and lodging costs incurred in visiting the ATEL offices, reviewing ATEL’s books and records and interviewing key ATEL personnel; the cost of outside counsel, accountants and other due diligence investigation specialists engaged by the broker-dealer; and the internal costs of time and materials expended by broker-dealer personnel in this due diligence effort. ATEL will require full itemized documentation of any claimed due diligence expenditure and will determine whether the expenditure can be fairly allocated to bona fide due diligence investigation before permitting reimbursement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, however, it is understood and agreed that the Manager has reserved the right to accept or reject any subscriptions for Units as set forth in the Prospectus and no selling commission will be payable to you or any of the Soliciting Dealers with respect to the tender of any Subscription Agreement which is rejected by you or the Manager as aforesaid. Furthermore, no subscription will be deemed binding until at least five days following delivery of a Prospectus. The Fund further agrees that it will pay the foregoing selling commission with respect to the purchase price of each of the Units upon the Manager’s acceptance of the order for such Units; provided, however, that none of such commissions will be payable or paid until release to the Fund from the escrow account in which they are to be deposited of proceeds from subscriptions for a minimum of 120,000 Units. It is understood and agreed that you may, in your discretion, permit you, the Manager, a Soliciting Dealer or any Affiliate or employee of any of the foregoing or certain clients of registered investment advisors to purchase Units net of the 7.5% retail selling commissions at a per Unit price of $9.25, as more specifically described in the Prospectus under “Plan of Distribution—Investments by Certain Persons.” Any such sale of Units net of retail commissions to you, the Manager, a Soliciting Dealer or any Affiliate or employee of such person will only be made if and to the extent that any Soliciting Dealer which would otherwise be entitled to a selling commission on any such transaction agrees to such rebate.