EX-4.1 2 saro-ex4_1.htm EX-4.1

Exhibit 4.1

DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK

The following description of the capital stock of StandardAero, Inc. (the “Company”, “our” and “we”) and certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws are summaries and are qualified in their entirety by reference to the full text of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and applicable provisions of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, or the DGCL.

General

Our authorized capital stock consists of 3,500,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share. Unless the board of directors determines otherwise, we will issue all shares of our capital stock in uncertificated form.

Common Stock

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes a total of 3,500,000,000 shares of common stock.

Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders and do not have cumulative voting rights. An election of directors by our stockholders shall be determined by a plurality of the votes cast by the stockholders entitled to vote on the election. Holders of common stock are entitled to receive proportionately any dividends as may be declared by our board of directors, subject to any preferential dividend rights of any series of preferred stock that we may designate and issue in the future.

In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the holders of common stock are entitled to receive proportionately our net assets available for distribution to stockholders after the payment in full of all debts and other liabilities and subject to the prior rights of any outstanding preferred stock. Holders of common stock have no preemptive, subscription, redemption or conversion rights. There are no sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock. The rights, preferences and privileges of holders of common stock are subject to, and may be adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of shares of any series of preferred stock that we may designate and issue in the future.

Preferred Stock

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes a total of 100,000,000 shares of preferred stock.

Under the terms of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our board of directors is authorized to direct us to issue shares of preferred stock in one or more series without stockholder approval. Our board of directors has the discretion to determine the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions, including voting rights, dividend rights, conversion rights, redemption privileges and liquidation preferences, of each series of preferred stock.

The purpose of authorizing our board of directors to issue preferred stock and determine its rights and preferences is to eliminate delays associated with a stockholder vote on specific issuances. The issuance of preferred stock, while providing flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions, future financings and other corporate purposes, could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or could discourage a third party from seeking to acquire, a majority of our outstanding voting stock. We have no present plans to issue any shares of preferred stock.

Authorized but Unissued Shares

The authorized but unissued shares of our common stock and our preferred stock are available for future issuance without stockholder approval, subject to any limitations imposed by the listing standards of the NYSE. These additional shares may be used for a variety of corporate finance transactions, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved common stock and preferred stock could make it more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.

Exclusive Forum

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws require, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine must be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware (or the federal district court for the District of Delaware or other state courts of the State of Delaware if the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware does not have jurisdiction). Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws also require that the federal district courts of the United States of America is the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act; however, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provision, and investors cannot waive compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Although we believe these provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of applicable law in the types of lawsuits to which they apply, the provisions may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers. These provisions would not apply to any suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts of the United States have exclusive jurisdiction.

These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims or make such lawsuits more costly for stockholders, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Conflicts of Interest

Delaware law permits corporations to adopt provisions renouncing any interest or expectancy in certain opportunities that are presented to the corporation or its officers, directors or stockholders. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, to the maximum extent permitted from time to time by Delaware law, renounces any interest or expectancy that we have in, or right to be offered an opportunity to participate in, specified business opportunities that are from time to time presented to our officers, directors or stockholders or their respective affiliates, other than those officers, directors, stockholders or affiliates who are our or our subsidiaries’ employees. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, none of the investment funds of The Carlyle Group Inc. (“Carlyle”), Hux Investment Ptd. Ltd. (“GIC Investor”) or any of their affiliates or any director who is not employed by us (including any non-employee director who serves as one of our officers in both his director and officer capacities) or his or her affiliates have any duty to refrain from (i) engaging in a corporate opportunity in the same or similar lines of business in which we or our affiliates now engage or propose to engage or (ii) otherwise competing with us or our affiliates. In addition, to the fullest extent permitted by law, in the event that Carlyle, the GIC Investor or any non-employee director acquires knowledge of a potential transaction or other business opportunity which may be a corporate opportunity for itself or himself or its or his affiliates or for us or our affiliates, such person has no duty to communicate or offer such transaction or business opportunity to us or any of our affiliates and they may take any such opportunity for themselves or offer it to another person or entity. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not renounce our interest in any business opportunity that is expressly offered to a non-employee director solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the Company. To the fullest extent permitted by law, no business opportunity will be deemed to be a potential corporate opportunity for us unless we would be permitted to undertake the opportunity under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we have sufficient financial resources to undertake the opportunity and the opportunity would be in line with our business.

Limitations on Liability and Indemnification of Officers and Directors

The DGCL authorizes corporations to limit or eliminate the personal liability of directors to corporations and their stockholders for monetary damages for breaches of directors’ fiduciary duties, subject to certain exceptions. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation includes a provision that eliminates the personal liability of directors for monetary damages for any breach of fiduciary duty as a director, except to the extent such exemption from liability or limitation thereof is not permitted under the DGCL. The effect of these provisions is to eliminate the rights of us and our stockholders, through stockholders’ derivative suits on our behalf, to recover monetary damages from a director for breach of fiduciary duty as a director, including breaches resulting from grossly negligent behavior. However, exculpation does not apply to any director if the director has acted in bad faith, knowingly or intentionally violated the law, authorized illegal dividends or redemptions or derived an improper benefit from his or her actions as a director.

Our amended and restated bylaws provide that we must indemnify and advance expenses to our directors and officers to the fullest extent authorized by the DGCL. We also are expressly authorized to carry directors’ and officers’ liability insurance providing indemnification for our directors, officers and certain employees for some liabilities. We believe that these indemnification and advancement provisions and insurance are useful to attract and retain qualified directors and executive officers.

The limitation of liability, indemnification and advancement provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against directors for breach of their fiduciary duty. These provisions also may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against directors and officers, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise benefit us and our stockholders. In addition, your investment may be adversely affected to the extent we pay the costs of settlement and damage awards against directors and officers pursuant to these indemnification provisions.

Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Company, we have been advised that in the opinion of the SEC such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable.

Anti-Takeover Effects of Provisions of Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, Our Amended and Restated Bylaws and Delaware Law

Certain provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may delay, defer or discourage another party from acquiring control of us. We expect that these provisions, which are summarized below, discourage coercive takeover practices or inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to first negotiate with our board of directors, which we believe may result in an improvement of the terms of any such acquisition in favor of our stockholders. However, they also give our board of directors the power to discourage acquisitions that some stockholders may favor.

Classified Board of Directors

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our board of directors is divided into three classes, with the classes as nearly equal in number as possible and, following the expiration of specified initial terms for each class, each class serving three-year staggered terms. As a result, approximately one-third of our directors are expected to be elected each year. Pursuant to the terms of the Stockholders Agreement by and between the Company and certain of its stockholders, dated October 1, 2024, directors designated by Carlyle may be removed with or without cause only by the request of Carlyle. In all other cases, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that directors may only be removed from our board of directors for cause by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the voting power of the then outstanding shares of voting stock, following such time as when Carlyle ceases to beneficially own at least 40% of the voting power of our common stock. Prior to that time, any individual director may be removed with or without cause by the affirmative vote of a majority of the confirmed voting power of our common stock. These provisions may have the effect of deferring, delaying or discouraging hostile takeovers, or changes in control of us or our management.

Special Stockholder Meetings

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that special meetings of our stockholders may be called at any time only by or at the direction of the board of directors or the chairperson of the board of directors; provided, however, at any time when Carlyle beneficially owns at least 40% in voting power of our common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, special meetings of our stockholders may also be called by the board of directors or the chairperson of the board of directors at the request of Carlyle. Our amended and restated bylaws prohibits the conduct of any business at a special meeting other than as specified in the notice for such meeting. These provisions may have the effect of deferring, delaying or discouraging hostile takeovers or changes in control of us or our management.

Requirements for Advance Notification of Stockholder Meetings, Director Nominations and Proposals

Our amended and restated bylaws establishes advance notice procedures with respect to stockholder proposals and the nomination of candidates for election as directors, other than nominations made by or at the direction of the board of directors or a committee of the board of directors. In order for any matter to be properly brought before a meeting of our stockholders, a stockholder must comply with advance notice requirements and provide us with certain information. Generally, to be timely, a stockholder’s notice must be received at our principal executive offices not less than 90 days nor more than 120 days prior to the first anniversary date of the immediately preceding annual meeting of stockholders. Our amended and restated bylaws also specify requirements as to the form and content of a stockholder’s notice. Our amended and restated bylaws allow the board of directors and the chairperson of a meeting of the stockholders to adopt rules and regulations for the conduct of meetings, which may have the effect of precluding the conduct of certain business at a meeting if the rules and regulations are not followed. These provisions may also deter, delay or discourage a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to influence or obtain control of our company.

Stockholder Action by Written Consent

Pursuant to Section 228 of the DGCL, any action required to be taken at any annual or special meeting of the stockholders may be taken without a meeting, without prior notice and without a vote if a consent or consents in writing, setting forth the action so taken, is signed by the holders of outstanding stock having not less than the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize or take such action at a meeting at which all shares of our stock entitled to vote thereon were present and voted, unless our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides otherwise. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prohibits stockholder action by written consent (and, thus, requires that all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders) if Carlyle ceases to own at least 40% of the voting power of our common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, other than certain rights that holders of our preferred stock may have to act by written consent.

Approval for Amendment of Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to adopt, amend, alter or repeal, in whole or in part, our bylaws without a stockholder vote in any matter not inconsistent with Delaware law or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. In addition, for as long as Carlyle beneficially owns at least 40% in voting power of the stock of our Company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, any adoption, amendment, alteration or repeal of our bylaws by our stockholders requires the affirmative vote of a majority in voting power of the outstanding shares of our stock present in person or represented by proxy at the meeting of stockholders and entitled to vote on such adoption, amendment, alteration or repeal. At any time when Carlyle beneficially owns less than 40% in voting power of all outstanding shares of the stock of our company entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, any adoption, amendment, alteration or repeal of our bylaws by our stockholders requires the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% in voting power of all the then-outstanding shares of voting stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class.

The DGCL provides generally that the affirmative vote of holders of a majority in voting power of outstanding shares entitled to vote on the matter, voting together as a single class, is required to amend a corporation’s certificate of incorporation, unless a corporation’s certificate of incorporation requires a greater percentage.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides at any time when Carlyle beneficially owns less than 40% of the voting power of our common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, then, in addition to any vote required by applicable law or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, any amendment, alteration, repeal or rescission of certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, including provisions relating to the size of the board, removal of directors, special meetings, actions by written consent and cumulative voting, shall require the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% in voting power of all the then-outstanding shares of voting stock of our company entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class.

Business Combinations

We opt out of Section 203 of the DGCL; however, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains similar provisions providing that we may not engage in certain “business combinations” with any “interested stockholder” for a three-year period following the time that the stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless:

| • |  | prior to such time, our board of directors approved either the business combination or the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder;

| • |  | upon consummation of the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of our voting stock outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, excluding certain shares;

| • |  | at or subsequent to that time, the business combination is approved by our board of directors and by the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of our outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder; or

| • |  | the stockholder became an interested stockholder inadvertently and (i) as soon as practicable divested itself of sufficient ownership to cease to be an interested stockholder and (ii) had not been an interested stockholder but for the inadvertent acquisition of ownership within three years of the business combination.

Generally, a “business combination” includes a merger, asset or stock sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. Subject to certain exceptions, an “interested stockholder” is a person who, together with that person’s affiliates and associates, owns, or within the previous three years owned, 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. For purposes of this section only, “voting stock” has the meaning given to it in Section 203 of the DGCL.

Under certain circumstances, this provision makes it more difficult for a person who would be an “interested stockholder” to effect various business combinations with our company for a three-year period. This provision may encourage companies interested in acquiring our company to negotiate in advance with our board of directors because the stockholder approval requirement would be avoided if our board of directors approves either the business combination or the transaction which results in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder. These provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our board of directors and may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that Carlyle, and any of its direct or indirect transferees and any group as to which such persons or entities are a party, does not constitute an “interested stockholder” for purposes of this provision.