Exhibit








EXHIBIT 4.10


CONCHO RESOURCES INC.
DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES


DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK


The common stock of Concho Resources Inc. (“we,” “us” and “our”) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol “CXO.” Our authorized capital stock consists of 300,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share, and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share.
The following summary of our capital stock, Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Certificate of Incorporation”) and Fourth Amended and Restated Bylaws (the “Bylaws”) does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the provisions of applicable law and to our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws.
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. Accordingly, holders of a majority of the shares of our common stock entitled to vote in any election of directors may elect all of the directors standing for election. 
Holders of our common stock are entitled to receive proportionately any dividends if and when such dividends are declared by our board of directors, subject to any preferential dividend rights of preferred stock that may be outstanding at the time such dividends are declared. Upon the liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our company, the holders of our common stock are entitled to receive ratably our net assets available after the payment of all debts and other liabilities and subject to the prior rights of any outstanding preferred stock. Holders of our common stock have no preemptive, subscription, redemption or conversion rights. The rights, preferences and privileges of holders of our 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. 
The payment and amount of future dividend payments, if any, are at the discretion of our board of directors and subject to covenants contained in our credit facility and the indentures governing our unsecured senior notes, which could limit the payment of dividends. Such payments will depend on various factors, including actual results of operations, liquidity and financial condition, net cash provided by operating activities, restrictions imposed by applicable law, our taxable income, our operating expenses and other factors our board of directors deems relevant. We are under no obligation to make dividend payments on our common stock and may cease such payments at any time in the future.
There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock. All outstanding shares of our common stock are fully paid and non-assessable.
Preferred Stock
Under the terms of our Certificate of Incorporation, our board of directors is authorized to designate and issue shares of preferred stock in one or more series without further vote or action by our stockholders. 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. It is not possible to state the actual effect of the issuance of any shares of preferred stock upon the rights of holders of the common stock until the board of directors determines the specific rights of the holders of the preferred stock. However, these effects might include: 
		
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	restricting dividends on the common stock; 




		
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	diluting the voting power of the common stock; 




		
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	impairing the liquidation rights of the common stock; and 




		
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	delaying or preventing a change in control of our company. 




We currently have no shares of preferred stock outstanding, and we have no present plans to issue any shares of preferred stock.
Anti-Takeover Provisions of Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws
Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws contain several provisions that could delay or make more difficult the acquisition of us through a hostile tender offer, open market purchases, proxy contest, merger or other takeover attempt that a stockholder might consider in his or her best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price of our common stock.


Written Consent of Stockholders
Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws provide that any action required or permitted to be taken by our stockholders must be taken at a duly called meeting of stockholders and not by written consent.


Special Meetings of Stockholders
Subject to the rights of the holders of any series of preferred stock, our Bylaws provide that special meetings of the stockholders may only be called by the chairman of the board of directors or by the resolution of our board of directors approved by a majority of the total number of authorized directors. No business other than that stated in a notice may be transacted at any special meeting.


Advance Notice Procedure for Director Nominations and Stockholder Proposals
Our Bylaws provide that adequate notice must be given to nominate candidates for election as directors or to make proposals for consideration at annual meetings of our stockholders. For nominations or other business to be properly brought before an annual meeting by a stockholder, the stockholder must have delivered a written notice to the Secretary of our company at our principal executive offices not later than the close of business 90 calendar days nor earlier than 120 calendar days prior to the first anniversary of the preceding year’s annual meeting; provided, however, that in the event that the date of the annual meeting is more than 30 calendar days before or more than 30 calendar days after the first anniversary of the date of the preceding year’s annual meeting, or if no annual meeting was held in the preceding year, notice by the stockholder to be timely must be so delivered not later than the close of business on the later of the 90th calendar day prior to such annual meeting or the 10th calendar day following the calendar day on which public announcement, if any, of the date of such meeting is first made by us. In no event shall an adjournment or recess of an annual meeting, or a postponement of an annual meeting for which notice of the meeting has already been given to stockholders or a public announcement, if any, of the date of such meeting has already 


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been made, commence a new time period (or extend any time period) for the giving of a stockholder’s notice described in this paragraph.


Nominations of persons for election to our board of directors may be made at a special meeting of stockholders at which directors are to be elected pursuant to our notice of meeting (i) by or at the direction of our board of directors, or (ii) by any stockholder of our company who is a stockholder of record at the time of the giving of notice of the meeting, who is entitled to vote at the meeting and who complies with the notice procedures set forth in our Bylaws. In the event we call a special meeting of stockholders for the purpose of electing one or more directors to our board of directors, any stockholder may nominate a person or persons (as the case may be) for election to such position(s) if the stockholder provides written notice to the Secretary of our company at our principal executive offices not earlier than the 90th calendar day prior to such special meeting, nor later than the close of business on the later of the 70th calendar day prior to such special meeting or the 10th calendar day following the day on which public announcement, if any, is first made of the date of the special meeting and of the nominees proposed by our board of directors to be elected at such meeting. In no event shall an adjournment, recess or postponement of a special meeting commence a new time period (or extend any time period) for the giving of a stockholder’s notice described in this paragraph.


These procedures may operate to limit the ability of stockholders to bring business before a stockholders meeting, including the nomination of directors and the consideration of any transaction that could result in a change in control and that may result in a premium to our stockholders.


Classified Board
Our Certificate of Incorporation divides our directors into three classes serving staggered three-year terms. As a result, stockholders will elect approximately one-third of the board of directors each year. This provision, when coupled with provisions of our Certificate of Incorporation authorizing only the board of directors to fill vacant or newly created directorships or increase the size of the board of directors and provisions providing that directors may only be removed for cause and then only by the holders of not less than 66 2/3% of the voting power of all outstanding voting stock, may deter a stockholder from gaining control of our board of directors by removing incumbent directors or increasing the number of directorships and simultaneously filling the vacancies or newly created directorships with its own nominees.


Authorized Capital Stock
Our Certificate of Incorporation contains provisions that the authorized but unissued shares of common stock and preferred stock are available for future issuance, subject to various limitations imposed by the NYSE. These additional shares may be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including public offerings to raise capital, corporate acquisitions and employee benefit plans.


Amendment of Bylaws
Under Delaware law, the power to adopt, amend or repeal bylaws is conferred upon the stockholders. A corporation may, however, in its certificate of incorporation also confer upon the board of directors the power to adopt, amend or repeal its bylaws. Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws grant our board of directors the power to adopt, amend and repeal our Bylaws on the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors then in office. Our stockholders may adopt, amend or repeal our Bylaws but only at any regular or special meeting of stockholders by the holders of not less than 66 2/3% of the voting power of all outstanding voting stock.




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Limitation of Liability of Directors
Our Certificate of Incorporation provides that no director shall be personally liable to us or our stockholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a director, except for liability as follows:


		
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	for any breach of the director’s duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders;




		
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	for acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of laws;




		
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	for unlawful payment of a dividend or unlawful stock purchase or stock redemption; and




		
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	for any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit.




The effect of these provisions is to eliminate our rights and our stockholders’ rights, through stockholders’ derivative suits on our behalf, to recover monetary damages against a director for a breach of fiduciary duty as a director, including breaches resulting from grossly negligent behavior, except in the situations described above.




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