Company: XXII
Filing Date: 2025-05-22
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001641172-25-012101
Chunk: 31

Company: 22nd Century Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-05-22
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 31
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 INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF SHARES OF AUTHORIZED COMMON STOCK FROM TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION (250,000,000) TO FIVE HUNDRED MILLION (500,000,000)</div>

General

Under our Articles of Incorporation as amended (our “Articles of Incorporation”), the total number of shares of all classes of capital stock that we are authorized to issue is two hundred sixty million (260,000,000), consisting of (i) two hundred fifty million (250,000,000) designated as common stock, $0.00001 par value per share, and (ii) ten million (10,000,000) designated as preferred stock, $0.00001 par value per share. Our Board of Directors has determined that it is advisable to increase (i) the authorized number of authorized shares from two hundred sixty million (260,000,000) to five hundred ten million (510,000,000) and (2) the authorized number of shares of common stock from two hundred fifty million (250,000,000) to five hundred million (500,000,000) and recommends that our stockholders approve an amendment to our Articles of Incorporation to effect the proposed increases. The amendment to the Articles of Incorporation that you are being asked to approve pursuant to this Proposal No. 4 will be substantially in the form of Appendix Aattached to this Proxy Statement.

Purpose of the Increase in Authorized Shares

As of May 16, 2025, we had two hundred fifty million (250,000,000) shares of common stock authorized, of which 11,507,622 shares were issued and outstanding (including 3,901,815 shares held in abeyance). Of the remaining 238,492,378 authorized shares, 70,787,551 shares are reserved for issuance upon the exercise of issued and outstanding warrants, 627,514 shares are reserved for issuance under the convertible senior secured credit facility, 478,777 shares are reserved for issuance upon the exercise of issued and outstanding equity option awards, 159,583 shares are reserved for unvested restricted stock units and 4,694,636 shares are reserved for future issuance under our stock incentive plan (increasing to 9,694,636 shares if Proposal No. 4 is approved). Accordingly, based on the foregoing, as of May 16, 2025, there are only approximately 161,744,317 shares of our authorized common stock unreserved