Investor Rights Agreement
The investor rights agreement dated as of November 5, 2008, by and among Oncor, Oncor Holdings, Texas Transmission, STH (formerly EFH Corp.) and any other persons that subsequently become a party thereto (Investor Rights Agreement) governs certain rights of certain members of Oncor and STH arising out of their direct or indirect ownership of Oncor membership interests, including, without limitation, transfers of Oncor membership interests and restrictions thereon. Texas Transmission may transfer its Oncor membership interests under a registration statement or pursuant to applicable securities laws. The Investor Rights Agreement also grants Texas Transmission certain “tag-along” rights in relation to certain sales of Oncor membership interests by Oncor Holdings. Subject to certain conditions, these “tag-along” rights allow Texas Transmission to sell a pro-rata portion of its Oncor membership interests in the event of a sale of Oncor membership interests by Oncor Holdings on the same terms as Oncor Holdings would receive for its Oncor membership interests. The agreement further provides that under certain offerings of equity securities occurring before an initial public offering of Oncor, Texas Transmission and Oncor Holdings will receive preemptive rights to purchase their pro-rata share of the equity securities to be sold pursuant to such offerings. The Investor Rights Agreement also provides STH and Sempra with a right of first refusal to purchase any Oncor membership interests to be sold in a permitted sale by Texas Transmission or its permitted transferees.
Additionally, STH, Sempra, certain of Sempra’s subsidiaries and Oncor Holdings have certain “drag-along” rights in relation to offers from third-parties to purchase their directly or indirectly owned membership interests in Oncor, where the resulting sale would constitute a change of control of Oncor. These “drag-along” rights compel Texas Transmission and all other members of Oncor to sell or otherwise transfer their membership interests in Oncor on substantially the same terms as STH, Sempra or Oncor Holdings (as applicable). Pursuant to the Investor Rights Agreement, all members of Oncor that have entered into such agreement must cooperate with Oncor in connection with an initial public offering of Oncor.
Transactions with Affiliates and Portfolio Companies of Certain of our Beneficial Owners
The beneficial owners of Texas Transmission include various entities and funds who make equity investments in various companies (Portfolio Companies) in the ordinary course of their business. We have in the past entered into, and may continue to enter into, transactions with Portfolio Companies or their affiliates in the ordinary course of business on an arm’s-length basis, which may indirectly result in revenues to beneficial owners of Texas Transmission.
2018 Transactions with Officers and Directors
In 2008 and 2009, we established stock appreciation rights (SARs) plans under which certain of our executive officers, key employees and non-employee members of our board of directors were granted SARs payable in cash, or in some circumstances, Oncor membership interests. In November 2012, we accepted the early exercise for cash payments of all outstanding SARs (both vested and unvested) issued pursuant to both SARs plans. As part of the 2012 early exercise of SARs, we began accruing interest on dividends declared with respect to the SARs. Under both SARs plans, dividends that were paid in respect of Oncor membership interests while the SARs were outstanding were credited to the SARs holder’s account as if the SARs were units and were payable upon the earliest to occur of death, disability, separation from service, unforeseeable emergency, a change in control, or the occurrence of an event triggering SAR exercisability. The SARs plans dividends and interest became payable as a result of the Sempra Acquisition, and we distributed the amounts on April 30, 2018, of which an aggregate of $11,731,862 was distributed to individuals who participated in the applicable SARs plan and served as executive officers in 2018, and $53,370 was distributed to the then current disinterested directors who participated in the applicable SARs plan.
On March 9, 2018, Oncor entered into an Interest Transfer Agreement (OMI Agreement) with Investment LLC, Oncor Holdings and Sempra. Pursuant to the 2008 Equity Interests Plan for Key Employees of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC and its affiliates, certain members of Oncor’s management, including Oncor’s executive officers and independent directors on Oncor’s board of directors, were granted the opportunity to purchase Class B equity interests (Class B Interests) in Investment LLC, an entity whose only assets consist of equity interests in Oncor. Investment LLC held 1,396,008 of the outstanding limited liability company interests in Oncor (the OMI Interests), which represented 0.22% of the then outstanding membership interests in Oncor.
Pursuant to the OMI Agreement, concurrent with the closing of the Sempra Acquisition, Investment LLC transferred to Oncor Holdings (which became a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Sempra upon closing of the Sempra Acquisition) all of the OMI Interests in exchange for $26 million in cash, which represents approximately $18.60 for each OMI Interest. Oncor Holdings paid the purchase price with funds received from Sempra via a capital contribution. Investment LLC retained approximately $34,000 of the purchase price for future expected tax liabilities and distributed the remainder of the proceeds, representing $18.57 per Class B equity interest held, to holders of Class B equity interests in proportion to the amount of Class B equity interests they held. Executives and members of our board of directors beneficially owned the following amounts of Class B Interests as of March 9, 2018: Robert S. Shapard: 300,000; E. Allen Nye Jr.:18,368; Mark Carpenter: 25,000; Don J. Clevenger: 50,000; Deborah L. Dennis: 50,000; James Greer: 75,000; Thomas M. Dunning: 20,000; Robert A. Estrada: 5,000; and Richard W. Wortham: 10,000.
Each participating executive officer entered into a management stockholder’s agreement and sale participation agreement with us. Each director that purchased Class B equity interests of Investment LLC in 2009 entered into a director stockholder’s agreement and a sale participation agreement with us. These agreements contained, among other things, restrictions on transferring Class B equity interests and certain drag-along and piggyback sale rights.
The certain letter agreements entered into with each of Sempra and certain of our executive officers in connection with the Sempra Acquisition provided for the payment of certain benefits, including change in control benefits, in the event of the executive’s retirement or termination from service within a specified time period following the Sempra Acquisition. These agreements provided that Sempra would bear responsibility for these payments. In 2018, Sempra reimbursed Oncor approximately $9.9 million (net of a tax deduction) for certain executive change in control expenses accrued by Oncor in connection with the Sempra Acquisition pursuant to such letter agreements.
2018 Transactions with the Sponsor Group
The Sponsor Group was an affiliate of ours until closing of the Sempra Acquisition on March 9, 2018. Affiliates of the Sponsor Group have (1) sold, acquired or participated in the offerings of our debt or debt securities in open market transactions or through loan syndications, and (2) performed various financial advisory, dealer, commercial banking and investment banking services for us and certain of our affiliates for which they have received customary fees and expenses.
The beneficial owners of the Sponsor Group included various entities and funds who make equity investments in various companies in the ordinary course of their business. Prior to March 9, 2018, we entered into transactions with certain of these companies or their affiliates in the ordinary course of business on an arm’s-length basis, which may have resulted in revenues to the beneficial owners of the Sponsor Group.
Director Independence
Our Limited Liability Company Agreement provides that seven members of our board of directors must be Disinterested Directors. For a director to be deemed a Disinterested Director, our board of directors must affirmatively determine that (i) such director has not had within the previous ten years, or currently does not have, a material relationship with Sempra or its subsidiaries or affiliated entities or any entity with a direct or indirect ownership interest in Oncor or Oncor Holdings and (ii) that such director meets the independence standards in Section 303A of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Manual in all material respects in relation to Sempra or its subsidiaries and affiliated entities or any entity with a direct or indirect ownership interest in Oncor or Oncor Holdings.
Our board of directors considers which of its members qualify as Disinterested Directors annually, in part by reviewing relevant relationships with organizations with which our directors are affiliated. Our board of directors has determined that each of Messrs. Dunning, Estrada, Gary, Hill, Mack and Walker and Ms. Rodriguez qualify as both independent directors under the New York Stock Exchange independence standards and as Disinterested Directors under the standards in our Limited Liability Company Agreement.
In connection with its review and determination of independence under the New York Stock Exchange independence standards, our board of directors considered what it viewed as certain non-material relationships and transactions involving our directors, including:
| • | | JPMorgan, where Ms. Rodriguez serves as head of the community impact organization and as a managing director, and its affiliates provide various commercial and investment banking services to Oncor in the ordinary course of business, including serving as administrative agent, joint lead arranger, joint bookrunner, and a lender under Oncor’s revolving credit facility, as a dealer manager under Oncor’s CP program, and as an initial purchaser/dealer manager in certain Oncor secured note offerings/exchange offers; and |
| • | | Oncor is a dues paying member of the Dallas Citizens Council, where Mr. Walker serves as the chief executive officer and Oncor’s chief executive serves on its board of directors. |
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