Exhibit 1.1
EXECUTION VERSION
MARKEL CORPORATION
(a Virginia
corporation)
$350,000,000
7.125% Senior Notes due
2019
UNDERWRITING
AGREEMENT
Dated: September 17,
2009
Markel Corporation
Debt Securities
Underwriting
Agreement
September 17, 2009
To the Representatives of the
several
Underwriters named in the
respective
Pricing Agreements hereinafter
described.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
From time to time Markel
Corporation, a Virginia corporation (the “Company”),
proposes to enter into one or more Pricing Agreements (each a
“Pricing Agreement”) to be attached as Annex I hereto,
subject to the terms and conditions stated herein and therein, to
issue and sell to the firm or firms named in Schedule I to the
applicable Pricing Agreement (such firm or firms constituting the
“Underwriters” with respect to such Pricing Agreement
and the securities specified therein) certain of its debt
securities (the “Securities”), specified in Schedule II
to such Pricing Agreement (with respect to such Pricing Agreement,
the “Firm Securities”). If specified in such Pricing
Agreement, the Company may grant to the Underwriters the right to
purchase at their election an additional aggregate principal amount
of debt securities, specified in such Pricing Agreement as provided
in Section 3 hereof (the “Optional
Securities”).
The Firm Securities and the Optional
Securities, if any, which the Underwriters elect to purchase under
Section 3 hereof are herein collectively called the
“Designated Securities.”
The Designated Securities are to be
issued under an indenture dated as of June 5, 2001, between
the Company and The Bank of New York Mellon (as successor to The
Chase Manhattan Bank), as trustee (the “Trustee”), as
supplemented to date and as supplemented by a supplemental
indenture relating to the Designated Securities (the
“Indenture”). The Designated Securities issued in
book-entry form will be issued to Cede & Co., as nominee
of The Depository Trust Company. The Designated Securities and the
Indenture are more fully described in the Prospectus referred to
below.
The terms and rights of any
particular issuance of Designated Securities shall be as specified
in the Pricing Agreement relating thereto.
1. Particular sales of Designated
Securities may be made from time to time to the Underwriters of
such Securities, for whom the firms designated as representatives
of the
Underwriters of such Securities in the Pricing
Agreement relating thereto will act as representatives (the
“Representatives”). The term
“Representatives” also refers to a single firm acting
as sole representative of the Underwriters and to Underwriters who
act without any firm being designated as their representative. This
Underwriting Agreement shall not be construed as an obligation of
the Company to sell any of the Securities or as an obligation of
any of the Underwriters to purchase any of the Securities. The
obligation of the Company to issue and sell any of the Securities
and the obligation of any of the Underwriters to purchase any of
the Securities shall be evidenced by the Pricing Agreement with
respect to the Designated Securities specified therein. Each
Pricing Agreement shall specify the aggregate principal amount of
Firm Securities, the maximum principal amount of Optional
Securities, if any, the initial public offering price of such
Designated Securities or the manner of determining such price, the
purchase price to the Underwriters of such Designated Securities,
the names of the Underwriters of such Designated Securities, the
names of the Representatives of such Underwriters, the number of
such Designated Securities to be purchased by each Underwriter and
the commission, if any, payable to the Underwriters with respect
thereto and shall set forth the date, time and manner of delivery
of such Designated Securities, and payment therefor. The Pricing
Agreement shall also specify (to the extent not set forth in the
registration statement and prospectus with respect thereto) the
terms of such Designated Securities. A Pricing Agreement shall be
in the form of an executed writing (which may be in counterparts),
and may be evidenced by an exchange of electronic communications or
any other rapid transmission device designed to produce a written
record of communications transmitted. The obligations of the
Underwriters under this Agreement and each Pricing Agreement shall
be several and not joint.
2. (a) The Company represents and
warrants to, and agrees with, each of the Underwriters
that:
(i) A registration statement on Form
S-3 (File No. 333-156265) in respect of the Securities has
been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
“Commission”) under the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended (the “Act”). Such registration statement
(i) is an “automatic shelf registration statement”
as defined in Rule 405 under the Act and (ii) became effective
not earlier than three years before the date hereof, and the
Company has not received any notice of objection from the
Commission to the use of such registration statement or any
post-effective amendment thereto under Rule 401(g)(2) under the
Act. As used herein, “Registration Statement” means, at
any given time, such registration statement including the
amendments thereto up to such time, the exhibits and any schedules
thereto at such time, the Incorporated Documents (as defined below)
at such time and documents otherwise deemed to be a part thereof or
included therein at such time under the rules and regulations under
the Act; “Rule 430B Information” means information
that was omitted from the Registration Statement at the time it
became effective but that is deemed to be part of and included in
the Registration Statement under Rule 430B under the Act;
“Base Prospectus” means the base prospectus included in
the Registration Statement; “Preliminary Prospectus”
means the Base Prospectus and any prospectus supplement used in
connection with the offering of the Designated Securities that
omitted the Rule 430B Information and is used before the
filing of the Prospectus (as defined below);
“Prospectus” means the prospectus supplement to the
Base Prospectus that is first filed after the execution hereof
under Rule 424(b) under the Act, together with the Base
Prospectus, as amended at the time of
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such filing; and “Prospectus
Supplement” means the prospectus supplement to the Base
Prospectus included in the Prospectus. As used herein, the terms
“Registration Statement,” “Base
Prospectus,” “Preliminary Prospectus,”
“Prospectus” and “Prospectus Supplement”
include all documents (including any Current Report on Form 8-K,
but excluding any information in such reports which is furnished
under Items 2.02 and 7.01 of Form 8-K) incorporated therein by
reference, whether such incorporated documents are filed or became
effective, as the case may be, before or after the date of such
Registration Statement or Prospectus (collectively, the
“Incorporated Documents”). Except as provided in the
next paragraph with respect to Time of Sale Information (as defined
below), when such Incorporated Documents are filed after the date
of the document into which they are incorporated, they shall be
deemed included therein from the date of filing of such
Incorporated Documents. Any statement contained in an Incorporated
Document, the Registration Statement, any Preliminary Prospectus or
the Prospectus shall be deemed to be modified or superseded to the
extent that a statement contained in a subsequently filed
Incorporated Document, any Preliminary Prospectus or the
Prospectus, as the case may be, modifies or supersedes such earlier
statement and shall be deemed to be modified or superseded as of
the date of such subsequently filed Incorporated Document, any
Preliminary Prospectus or the Prospectus; and any statement so
modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified
or superseded, to constitute part of the Incorporated Documents,
the Registration Statement, any Preliminary Prospectus or the
Prospectus.
At or before the time and date set
forth in the applicable Pricing Agreement (the “Time of
Sale”), the Company prepared the following information in
connection with the offering (collectively, the “Time of Sale
Information”): the Base Prospectus dated December 18,
2008, any Preliminary Prospectus, the Final Term Sheet (as defined
in Section 5(a) hereof) and any Issuer Free Writing Prospectus
(as defined in Section 2(a)(iii) hereof) listed on Schedule
III to the applicable Pricing Agreement. Notwithstanding any
provision hereof to the contrary, each document included in the
Time of Sale Information shall be deemed to include all
Incorporated Documents, whether any such Incorporated Document is
filed before or after the document into which it is incorporated,
so long as the Incorporated Document is filed before the Time of
Sale.
The Indenture has been duly
qualified under the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, as amended (the
“Trust Indenture Act”);
(ii) No order suspending the
effectiveness of the Registration Statement or otherwise preventing
or suspending the use of the Prospectus or any Preliminary
Prospectus has been issued by the Commission and is in effect and
no proceedings for that purpose or under Section 8A of the Act
against the Company or related to the offering are pending before
or, to the knowledge of the Company, threatened by the Commission.
At the respective times the Registration Statement and any post
effective amendments thereto became effective or are deemed to
become effective, at the time of execution and delivery of the
Pricing Agreement relating to the Designated Securities (the
“Execution Time”) and at the Time of Delivery (as
defined in Section 4 hereof), the Registration Statement
complied and will comply in all material respects with the
provisions of the Act and the rules, and regulations of the
Commission thereunder and
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did not contain and will not contain
an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material
fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the
statements therein not misleading; the Preliminary Prospectus dated
September 17, 2009, at the time it was issued and at the Time
of Sale, complied in all material respects with the provisions of
the Act and the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder;
the Time of Sale Information at the Time of Sale did not contain an
untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material
fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the
statements therein, in light of the circumstances under which they
were made, not misleading; the Prospectus at the time it was issued
and at the Time of Delivery will comply in all material respects
with the provisions of the Act and the rules and regulations of the
Commission thereunder and will not contain an untrue statement of a
material fact or omit to state a material fact required to be
stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein, in
light of the circumstances under which they were made, not
misleading; and any electronic road show or other written
communications reviewed and consented to by the Representatives
(collectively, “Additional Company Communication”),
when taken together with the Time of Sale Information, does not,
and at the Time of Delivery will not, contain an untrue statement
of a material fact or omit to state a material fact required to be
stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein, in
light of the circumstances under which they were made, not
misleading; provided, that the foregoing representations and
warranties shall not apply to statements in or omissions from the
Registration Statement, the Prospectus, any Preliminary Prospectus,
the Time of Sale Information or any Additional Company
Communication made in reliance upon information furnished in
writing to the Company by any Underwriter through the
Representatives for use in the Registration Statement, the
Prospectus, any Preliminary Prospectus, the Time of Sale
Information or any Additional Company Communication, or the part of
the Registration Statement which constitutes the Trustee’s
Statement of Eligibility under the Trust Indenture Act.
The Incorporated Documents, when
they became effective or at the time they were or hereafter are
filed with the Commission, as the case may be, complied and will
comply in all material respects with the requirements of the Act or
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange
Act”), as applicable, and the rules and regulations of the
Commission thereunder, and, when read together with the other
information in the Registration Statement and any Preliminary
Prospectus at the Execution Time and the Time of Sale did not
contain, or when read together with the other information in the
Registration Statement and the Prospectus, at the time of issuance
of the Prospectus and Time of Delivery will not contain an untrue
statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements
therein not misleading.
(iii) Other than the Base
Prospectus, any Preliminary Prospectus, the documents listed on
Schedule III to the Pricing Agreement, the Prospectus, any
Additional Company Communication, or any document not constituting
a prospectus under Section 2(a)(10)(a) of the Act or Rule 134
under the Act, the Company (including its agents and
representatives, other than the Underwriters in their capacity as
such) has not made, used, prepared, authorized, approved or
referred to and will not prepare, make, use, authorize, approve or
refer to, any “written communication” (as defined in
Rule 405
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under the Act) that would constitute
an “issuer free writing prospectus” (as defined in Rule
433 under the Act and referred to herein as an “Issuer Free
Writing Prospectus”), unless such written communication is
approved in writing in advance by the Representatives. To the
extent any such written communication constitutes an Issuer Free
Writing Prospectus, such Issuer Free Writing Prospectus complied,
or will comply in all material respects, with the requirements of
Rule 433(c) and, if the filing thereof is required under Rule 433,
such filing has been or will be made in the manner and within the
time period required by Rule 433(d). The Company will, in
accordance with reasonable procedures developed in good faith,
retain copies of each such Issuer Free Writing Prospectus in
accordance with Rule 433 under the Act;
(iv) Neither the Company nor any of
its subsidiaries which meets the definition of a significant
subsidiary as defined in Regulation S-X (a “Significant
Subsidiary”) has sustained, since the date of the latest
audited financial statements included or incorporated by reference
in the Time of Sale Information, any material loss or interference
with its business from fire, explosion, flood or other calamity,
whether or not covered by insurance, or from any labor dispute or
court or governmental action, order or decree, otherwise than as
set forth or contemplated in the Prospectus; and, since the
respective dates as of which information is given in the
Registration Statement and the Prospectus, there has not been any
change in the capital stock of the Company (other than
(i) under the Company’s employee stock purchase plans
existing on the date hereof, (ii) shares issued under the
Company’s Omnibus Incentive Plan, or (iii) shares
repurchased by the Company) or, except for borrowings under the
Company’s existing revolving credit facility, any increase,
on a consolidated basis, in the long-term debt of the Company and
its subsidiaries or any material adverse change, or any development
involving a prospective material adverse change, in or affecting
the general affairs, management, financial position,
shareholders’ equity or results of operations of the Company
and its subsidiaries, otherwise than as set forth or contemplated
in the Time of Sale Information;
(v) The Company has been duly
incorporated and is validly existing as a corporation in good
standing under the laws of Virginia, with power and authority
(corporate and other) to own, lease and operate its properties and
conduct its business in all material respects as described in the
Time of Sale Information and the Prospectus; and has been duly
qualified as a foreign corporation for the transaction of business
and is in good standing under the laws of each other jurisdiction
in which its owns or leases properties, or conducts any business,
so as to require such qualification, or is subject to no material
liability or disability by reason of the failure to be so qualified
in any such jurisdiction;
(vi) Each subsidiary of the Company
has been duly formed and is validly existing as a legal entity in
good standing under the laws of its jurisdiction of formation with
power and authority (corporate and other) to own, lease and operate
its properties and to conduct its business in all material respects
as described in the Time of Sale Information and the Prospectus;
each subsidiary of the Company has been duly qualified as a foreign
corporation for the transaction of business and is in good standing
under the laws of each other jurisdiction in which it owns or
leases properties or conducts any business so as to require
qualification or is subject to no material liability or disability
by reason of the failure to be so qualified in any
jurisdiction;
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(vii) The Company has an authorized
capitalization as set forth in the Prospectus, all of the issued
and outstanding shares of capital stock of the Company have been
duly and validly authorized and issued and are fully paid and
non-assessable; all of the issued and outstanding shares of capital
stock of each Significant Subsidiary of the Company have been duly
and validly authorized and issued, are fully paid and
non-assessable and (except for directors’ qualifying shares)
are owned directly or indirectly by the Company, free and clear of
all liens, encumbrances, equities or claims;
(viii) The Securities have been duly
and validly authorized, and, when the Firm Securities are issued
and delivered under this Underwriting Agreement, the Pricing
Agreement and the Indenture with respect to the Designated
Securities and, in the case of any Optional Securities, under an
Over-allotment Option (as defined in Section 3 hereof) and the
Indenture with respect to such Designated Securities, such
Designated Securities will be duly executed, authenticated, issued
and delivered and will constitute valid and binding obligations of
the Company, enforceable against the Company in accordance with
their terms, except as enforcement thereof may be limited by
bankruptcy, insolvency (including, without limitation, all laws
relating to fraudulent transfers), reorganization, moratorium or
similar laws affecting enforcement of creditors’ rights
generally and except as enforcement thereof is subject to general
principles of equity (regardless of whether enforcement is
considered in a proceeding in equity or at law), and will be
entitled to the benefits of the Indenture; the Securities conform
to the description thereof contained in the Registration Statement
and the Designated Securities will conform to the description
thereof contained in the Prospectus with respect to such Designated
Securities;
(ix) The issue and sale of the Firm
Securities and the Optional Securities and the compliance by the
Company with all of the provisions of this Underwriting Agreement,
any Pricing Agreement and each Over-allotment Option, if any, and
the consummation of the transactions contemplated herein and
therein will not conflict with or result in a breach or violation
of any of the terms or provisions of, or constitute a default
under, any indenture, mortgage, deed of trust, loan agreement or
other agreement or instrument to which the Company is a party or by
which the Company is bound or to which any of the property or
assets of the Company is subject, except in each case, for such
conflicts, breaches, violations or defaults as could not reasonably
be expected, individually or in the aggregate, to have a material
adverse effect on the financial position, shareholders’
equity or results of operations of the Company (a “Material
Adverse Effect”), nor will such action result in any
violation of (i) the provisions of the Articles of
Incorporation or By-laws of the Company or (ii) any statute or
any order, rule or regulation of any court or governmental agency
or body having jurisdiction over the Company or any of its
properties, except, in the case of clause (ii), for such violations
as could not reasonably be expected, individually or in the
aggregate, to have a Material Adverse Effect; and no consent,
approval, authorization, order, registration or qualification of or
with any such court or governmental agency or body is required for
the issue and sale of the Firm Securities and the Optional
Securities or the consummation by
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the Company of the transactions
contemplated by this Agreement or any Pricing Agreement or any
Over-allotment Option, except such as have been, or will have been
before each Time of Delivery (as defined in Section 4 hereof),
obtained under the Act, such consents, approvals, authorizations,
registrations or qualifications as may be required under state
securities or Blue Sky laws in connection with the purchase and
distribution of the Securities by the Underwriters;
(x) Other than as set forth in the
Time of Sale Information, there are no legal or governmental
proceedings pending to which the Company or any of its subsidiaries
is a party or of which any property of the Company or any of its
subsidiaries is the subject, which, if determined adversely to the
Company or any of its subsidiaries, would individually or in the
aggregate have a material adverse effect on the current or future
consolidated financial position, shareholders’ equity or
results of operations of the Company and its subsidiaries; and, to
the best of the Company’s knowledge, no such proceedings are
threatened or contemplated by governmental authorities or
threatened by others;
(xi) Neither the Company nor any of
its subsidiaries is (i) in violation of its Articles of
Incorporation or By-laws or (ii) in default in the performance
or observance of any obligation, agreement, covenant or condition
contained in any indenture, mortgage, deed of trust, loan
agreement, lease or other agreement or instrument to which it is a
party or by which it or any of its properties may be bound, except,
in the case of clause (ii), where such violation or default could
not reasonably be expected to have a Material Adverse
Effect;
(xii) Each of the Company and its
subsidiaries is in compliance with, and conducts its business in
conformity with, all applicable laws and governmental regulations,
except where the failure to be so in compliance could not
reasonably be expected to have a Material Adverse
Effect;
(xiii) The statements set forth in
the Prospectus under the caption “Description of Notes”
and “Description of Debt Securities”, insofar as they
purport to constitute a summary of the terms of the Designated
Securities and the Indenture, are accurate and complete in all
material respects;
(xiv) The Company is not and, after
giving effect to the offering and sale of the Securities, will not
be an “investment company”, as such term is defined in
the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the
“Investment Company Act”);
(xv) KPMG LLP, who has certified
certain financial statements of the Company and its subsidiaries,
is an independent registered public accounting firm as required by
the Act and the rules and regulations of the Commission
thereunder;
(xvi) The financial statements
included in the Registration Statement, the Time of Sale
Information and the Prospectus, together with the related schedules
and notes, present fairly the financial position of the Company and
its consolidated subsidiaries at the dates indicated and the
statement of operations, stockholders’ equity and cash
flows
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of the Company and its consolidated
subsidiaries for the periods specified; said financial statements
have been prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles applied on a consistent basis throughout the periods
involved. The selected financial data included or incorporated by
reference in the Registration Statement, the Time of Sale
Information and the Prospectus have been derived from the audited
financial statements; and
(xvii) The Company is a
“well-known seasoned issuer”, and is not, and has not
been since the filing of the Registration Statement, an
“ineligible issuer”, both terms as defined in Rule 405
under the Act. The Company has paid the registration fee for the
offering of Designated Securities in accordance with Rule 456(b)(1)
under the Act or will pay such fees within the time period required
by such rule (without giving effect to the proviso therein) and in
any event before the Time of Delivery.
(b) Each of the Underwriters,
severally and not jointly, represents and warrants to, and agrees
with, the Company that:
(i) Except for one or more
communications containing customary information relating to the
terms of the Designated Securities that do not require the Company
to file any material pursuant to Rule 433(d) under the Act, and
except for the Final Term Sheet and any Issuer Free Writing
Prospectus listed on Schedule III to the Pricing Agreement or
otherwise approved in writing in advance by the Representatives
under Section 2(a)(iii) above, it has not made and will not
make, unless approved in writing in advance by the Company and the
Representatives, any offer relating to the Designated Securities
that would constitute a “free writing prospectus” (as
defined in Rule 405 under the Act and referred to herein as a
“Free Writing Prospectus”) that would be required to be
filed with the Commission; provided that the prior written
consent of the parties hereto shall be deemed to have been given in
respect of the Issuer Free Writing Prospectus included in Schedule
IV hereto.
(ii) It will, in accordance with
reasonable procedures developed in good faith, retain copies of
each Free Writing Prospectus used or referred to by it, in
accordance with Rule 433 under the Act.
3. Upon the execution of the Pricing
Agreement applicable to any Designated Securities and authorization
by the Representatives of the release of the Firm Securities, the
several Underwriters propose to offer the Firm Securities for sale
upon the terms and conditions set forth in Schedule II to the
applicable Pricing Agreement.
The Company may specify in the
Pricing Agreement applicable to any Designated Securities that the
Company thereby grants to the Underwriters the right (an
“Over-allotment Option”) to purchase at their election
up to the maximum aggregate principal amount of Optional Securities
set forth in such Pricing Agreement, on the terms set forth in the
paragraph above, for the sole purpose of covering over-allotments
in the sale of the Firm Securities. Any such election to purchase
Optional Securities may be exercised by written notice from the
Representatives to the Company, given within a period specified in
the Pricing Agreement, setting forth the aggregate principal amount
of Optional Securities to be purchased and the date
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on which such Optional Securities are to be
delivered, as determined by the Representatives but in no event
earlier than the First Time of Delivery (as defined in
Section 4 hereof) or, unless the Representatives and the
Company otherwise agree in writing, earlier than or later than the
respective number of business days after the date of such notice
set forth in such Pricing Agreement.
The aggregate principal amount of
Optional Securities to be added to the aggregate principal amount
of Firm Securities to be purchased by each Underwriter, as set
forth in Schedule I to the Pricing Agreement applicable to such
Designated Securities, shall be, in each case, the aggregate
principal amount of Optional Securities which the Company has been
advised by the Representatives have been attributed to such
Underwriter; provided that, if the Company has not been so advised,
the aggregate principal amount of Optional Securities to be so
added shall be, in each case, that proportion of Optional
Securities which the aggregate principal amount of Firm Securities
to be purchased by such Underwriter under such Pricing Agreement
bears to the aggregate principal amount of Firm Securities. The
total aggregate principal amount of Designated Securities to be
purchased by all the Underwriters under such Pricing Agreement
shall be the aggregate principal amount of Firm Securities set
forth in Schedule I to such Pricing Agreement plus the aggregate
principal amount of Optional Securities which the Underwriters
elect to purchase.
4. Certificates for the Firm
Securities and the Optional Securities to be purchased by each
Underwriter under the Pricing Agreement relating thereto, in the
form specified in such Pricing Agreement and in such authorized
denominations and registered in such names as the Representatives
may request upon at least forty-eight hours’ prior notice to
the Company, shall be delivered by or on behalf of the Company to
the Representatives for the account of such Underwriter, against
payment by such Underwriter or on its behalf of the purchase price
therefor by wire transfer of Federal (same-day) funds to the
account specified by the Company to the Representatives at least
forty-eight hours in advance, as specified in such Pricing
Agreement, (i) with respect to the Firm Securities, all in the
manner and at the place and time and date specified in such Pricing
Agreement or at such other place and time and date as the
Representatives and the Company may agree upon in writing, such
time and date being herein called the “First Time of
Delivery” and (ii) with respect to the Optional
Securities, if any, in the manner and at the time and date
specified by the Representatives in the written notice given by the
Representatives of the Underwriters’ election to purchase
such Optional Securities, or at such other time and date as the
Representatives and the Company may agree upon in writing, such
time and date, if not the First Time of Delivery, herein called the
“Second Time of Delivery”. Each such time and date for
delivery is herein called a “Time of
Delivery”.
5. The Company agrees with each of
the Underwriters of any Designated Securities:
(a) To file the Prospectus (in a
form approved by the Representatives) with the Commission within
the time periods specified by Rule 424(b); to make no further
amendment or any supplement to the Registration Statement or
Prospectus after the Execution Time and prior to the Time of
Delivery to which the Representatives reasonably object promptly
after reasonable notice thereof; to advise the Representatives
promptly of any such amendment or supplement after the Time of
Delivery and furnish
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the Representatives with copies
thereof; to prepare a final term sheet, in the form of Schedule IV
to the applicable Pricing Agreement (the “Final Term
Sheet”) and file such Final Term Sheet in compliance with
Rule 433(d) under the Act; prior to the Time of Sale and for so
long as the delivery of a prospectus is required in connection with
the offering or sale of the Designated Securities, to file promptly
all reports and any definitive proxy or information statements
required to be filed by the Company with the Commission under
Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and give
reasonable notice to the Representatives prior to the filing
thereof and any amendment to the Registration Statement, any
supplement to the Prospectus or any amended Prospectus; and to
advise the Representatives promptly after it receives notice of the
issuance by the Commission of any stop order or of any order
preventing or suspending the use of any prospectus relating to the
Securities, of receipt from the Commission of any notice of
objection to the use of the Registration Statement or any
supplement or amendment thereto, of the suspension of the
qualification of the Designated Securities for offering or sale in
any jurisdiction, of the initiation or threatening of any
proceeding for any such purpose, or of any request by the
Commission for the amending or supplementing of the Registration
Statement or Prospectus or for additional information; and, in the
event of the issuance of any such stop order or of any such order
preventing or suspending the use of any prospectus relating to the
Securities or suspending any such qualification or of any such
notice of objection, promptly to use its best efforts to obtain the
withdrawal of such order or notice of objection;
(b) Promptly from time to time to
take such action as the Representatives may reasonably request to
qualify the Designated Securities for offering and sale under the
securities laws of such jurisdictions as the Representatives may
request and to comply with such laws so as to permit the
continuance of sales and dealings therein in such jurisdictions for
as long as may be necessary to complete the distribution of the
Designated Securities, provided that in connection therewith the
Company shall not be required to qualify as a foreign corporation
or to file a general consent to service of process in any
jurisdiction;
(c) Promptly as practicable after
the Execution Time and from time to time, to furnish the
Underwriters with written and electronic copies of the Prospectus
in New York City in such quantities as the Representatives may
reasonably request, and, if the delivery of a prospectus is
required at any time in connection with the offering or sale of the
Securities and if at such time any event shall have occurred as a
result of which the Prospectus as then amended or supplemented
would include an untrue statement of a material fact or omit to
state any material fact necessary in order to make the statements
therein, in the light of the circumstances under which they were
made when such Prospectus is delivered, not misleading, or, if for
any other reason it shall be necessary during such same period to
amend or supplement the Prospectus or to file under the Exchange
Act any document incorporated by reference in the Prospectus in
order to comply with the Act or the Exchange Act, to notify the
Representatives and upon their request to file such document and to
prepare and furnish without charge to each Underwriter and to any
dealer in securities as many written and electronic copies as the
Representatives may from time to time reasonably request of an
amended Prospectus or a supplement to the Prospectus which will
correct such statement or omission or effect such
compliance;
10
(d) To make generally available to
its security holders as soon as practicable, but in any event not
later than eighteen months after the effective date (as defined in
Rule 158(c) under the Act) of the Registration Statement, an
earnings statement of the Company and its subsidiaries (which need
not be audited) complying with Section 11(a) of the Act and
the rules and regulations of the Commission thereunder (including,
at the option of the Company, Rule 158);
(e) During the period beginning from
the Execution Time and continuing to the date specified in the
Pricing Agreement (if any), the Company will not, without the prior
written consent of the Representatives, directly or indirectly,
issue, sell, offer or contract to sell, grant any option for the
sale of, or otherwise dispose of, the securities specified in the
Pricing Agreement;
(f) To apply the net proceeds from
the sale of the Designated Securities sold by the Company
substantially in accordance with the description set forth in the
Prospectus;
(g) If the Company elects to rely
upon Rule 462(b) under the Act, to file a Rule 462(b) Registration
Statement with the Commission in compliance with Rule 462(b) by
10:00 P.M., Washington, D.C. time, on the date of the Pricing
Agreement for such Designated Securities, and the Company shall at
the time of filing either pay the Commission the filing fee for the
Rule 462(b) Registration Statement or give irrevocable instructions
for the payment of such fee under Rule 111(b) under the Act;
and
(h) Upon request of any Underwriter,
to furnish, or cause to be furnished, to such Underwriter an
electronic version of the Company’s trade names and corporate
logo for use on the website, if any, operated by such Underwriter
for the purpose of facilitating the on-line offering of the
Securities (the “License”); provided, however, that the
License shall be used solely for the purpose described above for a
period not to exceed 120 days, is granted without any fee and may
not be assigned or transferred.
6. The Company hereby covenants and
agrees with the several Underwriters that the Company will pay or
cause to be paid the following: (i) the fees, disbursements
and expenses of the Company’s counsel and accountants in
connection with the registration of the Securities under the Act
and all other expenses in connection with the preparation, printing
and filing of the Registration Statement, any Preliminary
Prospectus, any Issuer Free Writing Prospectus, the Final Term
Sheet and the Prospectus and amendments and supplements thereto and
the mailing and delivering of copies thereof to the Underwriters
and dealers; (ii) the cost of printing or producing any
Agreement among Underwriters, this Agreement, any Pricing
Agreement, any Blue Sky Memorandum, closing documents (including
compilations thereof) and any other documents in connection with
the offering, purchase, sale and delivery of the Securities;
(iii)&nb