EXHIBIT 4(d)
DESCRIPTION OF COMMON STOCK
The following description of the common stock of Cummins Inc. (the “Company”) summarizes general terms and provisions that apply to the Company’s common stock. The summary is subject to and qualified in its entirety by reference to the Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws (as amended and restated), which are filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
General
The Company is authorized to issue up to 500 million shares of common stock, par value $2.50 per share. Subject to the limitations described below and the prior rights of the Company’s preferred stock and preference stock, the Company’s common stock is entitled to dividends when and as declared by the Company’s board of directors out of funds legally available therefor. Holders of the Company’s common stock are entitled to one vote per share. There is no provision for cumulative voting or preemptive rights. The holders of the Company’s preferred stock and the holders of the Company’s preference stock are each entitled to elect two directors to the Company’s board of directors upon default in the payment of six quarterly dividends on any series of such class and have voting rights with respect to amendments of the Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation affecting certain of their rights and in the case of certain mergers, consolidations and dispositions of substantially all of the Company’s assets. Upon any liquidation, voluntary or involuntary, of the Company, holders of common stock are (to the exclusion of any holders of preferred stock and preference stock) entitled ratably to all of the Company’s assets after payment of its liabilities and satisfaction of the liquidation preferences of the preferred stock and the preference stock. The outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and nonassessable.
The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The transfer agent and registrar for the Company’s common stock is EQ Shareowner Services, Mendota Heights, Minnesota.
Dividends
The holders of common stock shall be entitled to share ratably in dividends or other distributions as are declared from time to time on the shares of the common stock at the discretion of the board of directors. No dividends or distributions may be declared or paid or made on, or acquisitions made of, any common stock unless dividends on all outstanding preferred stock and preference stock for all past quarterly dividend periods have been declared and paid or a sum sufficient for payment set apart.
Certain Provisions of the Indiana Business Corporation Law
As an Indiana corporation, the Company is governed by the Indiana Business Corporation Law, or the IBCL. Under specified circumstances, the following provisions of the IBCL may delay, prevent or make more difficult certain unsolicited acquisitions or changes of control of the Company. These provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in the Company’s management. It is possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish transactions which shareholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interest.
Special Meetings by the Shareholders. Under Chapter 29 of the IBCL, any action required or permitted to be taken by the holders of common stock may be effected only at an annual meeting or special meeting (which special meeting shall be called by the Company upon written request by shareholders holding not less than 10% of the voting power of all outstanding shares of the Company’s capital stock) of such holders, and shareholders may act in lieu of such meetings only by unanimous written consent.
Control Share Acquisitions. Under Chapter 42 of the IBCL, an acquiring person or group who makes a “control share acquisition” in an “issuing public corporation” may not exercise voting rights on any “control shares” unless these voting rights are conferred by a majority vote of the disinterested shareholders of the issuing public corporation at a special meeting of those shareholders held upon the request and at the expense of the acquiring person. If control shares acquired in a control share acquisition are accorded full voting rights and the acquiring person has acquired control shares with a majority or more of all voting power, all shareholders of the issuing public corporation have dissenters’ rights to receive the fair value of their shares pursuant to Chapter 44 of the IBCL.
Under the IBCL, “control shares” means shares acquired by a person that, when added to all other shares of the issuing public corporation owned by that person or in respect to which that person may exercise or direct the exercise of voting power, would otherwise entitle that person to exercise voting power of the issuing public corporation in the election of directors within any of the following ranges:
•one-fifth or more but less than one-third;
•one-third or more but less than a majority; or
•a majority or more.
“Control share acquisition” means, subject to specified exceptions, the acquisition, directly or indirectly, by any person of ownership of, or the power to direct the exercise of voting power with respect to, issued and outstanding control shares. For the purposes of determining whether an acquisition constitutes a control share acquisition, shares acquired within 90 days or under a plan to make a control share acquisition are considered to have been acquired in the same acquisition. “Issuing public corporation” means a corporation which has (i) 100 or more shareholders, (ii) its principal place of business or its principal office in Indiana, or that owns or controls assets within Indiana having a fair market value of greater than $1,000,000, and (iii) (A) more than 10% of its shareholders resident in Indiana, (B) more than 10% of its shares owned of record or owned beneficially by Indiana residents, or (C) 1,000 shareholders resident in Indiana.
The above provisions do not apply if, before a control share acquisition is made, the corporation’s articles of incorporation or by-laws, including a by-law adopted by the corporation’s board of directors, provide that they do not apply. The Company’s By-laws provide that the Company is not subject to the Control Share Act. However, the Company’s By-laws may be amended by the Company’s board of directors without a shareholder vote.
Certain Business Combinations. Chapter 43 of the IBCL restricts the ability of a “resident domestic corporation” to engage in any combinations with an “interested shareholder” for five years after the date the interested shareholder became such, unless the combination or the purchase of shares by the interested shareholder on the interested shareholder’s date of acquiring shares is approved by the board of directors of the resident domestic corporation before that date. If the combination was not previously approved, the interested shareholder may effect a combination after the five-year period only if that shareholder receives approval from a majority of the disinterested shareholders or the offer meets specified fair price criteria. For purposes of the above provisions, “resident domestic corporation” means an Indiana corporation that has 100 or more shareholders. “Interested shareholder” means any person, other than the resident domestic corporation or its subsidiaries, who is (1) the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of 10% or more of the voting power of the outstanding voting shares of the resident domestic corporation or (2) an affiliate or associate of the resident domestic corporation, which at any time within the five-year period immediately before the date in question, was the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of 10% or more of the voting power of the then-outstanding shares of the resident domestic corporation.
The definition of “beneficial owner” for purposes of Chapter 43, means a person who, directly or indirectly, has the right to acquire or vote the subject shares (excluding voting rights under revocable proxies made in accordance with federal law), has any agreement, arrangement or understanding for the purpose of acquiring, holding or voting or disposing of the subject shares, or holds any “derivative instrument” that includes the opportunity to profit or share in any profit derived from any increase in the value of the subject shares.
The above provisions do not apply to corporations that elect not to be subject to Chapter 43 in an amendment to their articles of incorporation approved by a majority of the disinterested shareholders. That amendment, however, cannot become effective until 18 months after its passage and would apply only to share acquisitions occurring after its effective date. The Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation do not exclude it from Chapter 43.
The overall effect of the above provisions may be to render more difficult or to discourage a merger, tender offer, proxy contest, the assumption of control of the Company by a holder of a large block of the Company’s stock or other person, or the removal of incumbent management, even if such actions may be beneficial to the Company’s shareholders generally.
Directors’ Duties and Liability. Under Chapter 35 of the IBCL, directors are required to discharge their duties:
•in good faith;
•with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances; and
•in a manner the directors reasonably believe to be in the best interests of the corporation.
However, the IBCL also provides that a director is not liable for any action taken as a director, or any failure to act, regardless of the nature of the alleged breach of duty (including breaches of the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of good faith) unless the director has breached or failed to perform the duties of the director’s office and the action or failure to act constitutes willful misconduct or recklessness.
This exoneration from liability under the IBCL does not affect the liability of directors for violations of the federal securities laws. Chapter 35 of the IBCL also provides that a board of directors, in discharging its duties, may consider, in its discretion, both the long-term and short-term best interests of the corporation, taking into account, and weighing as the directors deem appropriate, the effects of an action on the corporation’s shareholders, employees, suppliers and customers and the communities in which offices or other facilities of the corporation are located and any other factors the directors consider pertinent. Directors are not required to consider the effects of a proposed corporate action on any particular corporate constituent group or interest as a dominant or controlling factor. If a determination is made with the approval of a majority of the disinterested directors of the board, that determination is conclusively presumed to be valid unless it can be demonstrated that the determination was not made in good faith after reasonable investigation. Chapter 35 specifically provides that specified judicial decisions in Delaware and other jurisdictions, which might be looked upon for guidance in interpreting Indiana law, including decisions that propose a higher or different degree of scrutiny in response to a proposed acquisition of the corporation, are inconsistent with the proper application of the business judgment rule under that section.
Mandatory Classified Board of Directors. Under Chapter 33 of the IBCL, a corporation with a class of voting shares registered with the SEC under Section 12 of the Exchange Act must have a classified board of directors unless the corporation adopts a by-law expressly electing not to be governed by this provision by the later of July 31, 2009 or 30 days after the corporation’s voting shares are registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. The Company’s By-Laws (as amended and restated) include a provision whereby the Company elected to not be subject to this mandatory requirement; however, the IBCL permits this election to be rescinded by subsequent action of the Company’s board of directors.