§269-17.5 Issuance of voting stock; restrictions. (a) For purposes of this section "foreign corporation" means a foreign corporation as defined in section 235-1 or a corporation in which a majority of the voting stock is held by a single foreign corporation as defined in section 235-1.

(b) "Nonresident alien" means a person not a citizen of the United States who is not defined as a resident alien by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

(c) No more than twenty-five per cent of the issued and outstanding voting stock of a corporation organized under the laws of the State and who owns, controls, operates, or manages any plant or equipment, or any part thereof, as a public utility within the definition set forth in section 269-1 shall be held, whether directly or indirectly, by any single foreign corporation or any single nonresident alien, or held by any person, unless prior written approval is obtained from the public utilities commission, or unless a transaction is exempt. An exempt transaction is:

(1) Any purchase or sale by an underwriter;

(2) Any transaction involving a public utility providing basic exchange service to every county in the State that consists of less than fifty per cent of the issued and outstanding voting stock of a corporation organized under the laws of the State; or

(3) A transaction to acquire shares of a corporation with less than one hundred shareholders and less than $1,000,000 in assets.

Every assignment, transfer, contract, or agreement for assignment or transfer of any shares in violation of this section shall be void and of no effect; and no such transfer shall be made on the books of the corporation. Nothing herein shall be construed to make illegal the holding of stock lawfully held, directly or indirectly, prior to June 4, 1977. [L 1977, c 168, §2; am L 1998, c 73, §1; am L 2005, c 22, §11; am L 2019, c 229, §2]