Dividend and Other Payment Restrictions Affecting Subsidiaries
The Company will not, and will not permit any of its Restricted Subsidiaries to, directly or indirectly, create or permit to exist or become effective any consensual encumbrance or restriction on the ability of any Restricted Subsidiary to:
(a) pay dividends or make any other distributions on its Capital Stock to the Company or any of the Company’s Restricted Subsidiaries, or pay any Indebtedness owed to the Company or any of the Company’s Restricted Subsidiaries (it being understood that the priority of any preferred stock in receiving dividends, distributions or liquidating distributions prior to dividends, distributions or liquidating distributions being paid on Capital Stock shall not be deemed a restriction on the ability to make distributions on Capital Stock);
(b) make loans or advances to the Company or any of the Company’s Restricted Subsidiaries (it being understood that the subordination of loans or advances made to the Company or any of its Restricted Subsidiaries to other Indebtedness incurred by the Company or any of its Restricted Subsidiaries shall not be deemed a restriction on the ability to make loans or advances); or
(c) transfer any of its properties or assets to the Company or any of the Company’s Restricted Subsidiaries.
However, the preceding restrictions will not apply to encumbrances or restrictions existing under or by reason of:
(1) agreements existing on the Issue Date, including the Credit Agreement as in effect on the Issue Date and the Indenture, the Notes and the Subsidiary Guarantees;
(2) any instrument governing Indebtedness or Capital Stock of a Person acquired by the Company or any of its Restricted Subsidiaries as in effect at the time of such acquisition (except to the extent such Indebtedness was incurred in connection with or in contemplation of such acquisition), which encumbrance or restriction is not applicable to any Person, or the properties or assets of any Person, other than the Person, or the property or assets of the Person, so acquired, provided that, in the case of Indebtedness, such Indebtedness was permitted by the terms of the Indenture to be incurred;
(3) any agreement for the sale or other disposition of Capital Stock or assets of a Restricted Subsidiary that restricts distributions by such Restricted Subsidiary pending such sale or other disposition;
(4) any amendment, restatement, modification, supplement, extension, renewal, refunding, replacement or refinancing of Indebtedness referred to in clauses (1) or (2), provided that the encumbrances or restrictions contained in the agreements governing the foregoing are not materially more restrictive, taken as a whole, than those contained in the agreements governing such Indebtedness as determined in good faith by the Company;
(5) cash or other deposits, or net worth requirements or similar requirements, imposed by suppliers, or other deposits by parties under agreements entered into in the ordinary course of the Oil and Gas Business of the types described in the definition of Permitted Business Investments;
(6) any applicable law, rule, regulation, order, approval, license, permit or similar restriction;
(7) provisions limiting the disposition or distribution of assets or property or transfer of Capital Stock in joint venture agreements, asset sale agreements, sale-leaseback agreements, stock sale agreements, limited liability company organizational documents, and other similar agreements entered into in the ordinary course of business, consistent with past practice or with the approval of the Company’s Board of Directors or any of its officers, which limitation is applicable only to the assets, property or Capital Stock that are the subject of such agreements;
(8) any encumbrance or restriction contained in the terms of any Indebtedness or Capital Stock permitted to be incurred under the Indenture or any agreement pursuant to which such Indebtedness was
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