Document:

Exhibit

DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES

Authorized and Outstanding Capital Stock
 The following description of our common stock and provisions of Emergent Capital, Inc.’s (the "Company") articles of incorporation and bylaws are summaries and are qualified by reference to the Company’s articles of incorporation and bylaws, which have been incorporated by reference as exhibits to the Annual Report on Form 10-K to which this Description of Securities is an exhibit.
 The Company’s authorized capital stock consists of 415,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and 40,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share.
 As of November 30, 2019, there were 157,749,862 shares of common stock outstanding, and no shares of preferred stock were outstanding. 
Description of Common Stock
Voting Rights. Holders of the Company’s common stock are entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to a vote of the Company’s shareholders.  
Holders of a majority of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock present or represented by proxy at any meeting of the Company’s shareholders constitute a quorum.
Dividends; Liquidation; Preemptive Rights. Holders of the Company’s common stock are entitled to receive dividends only if, as and when declared by the Company’s board of directors out of funds legally available for that purpose. In the event of the Company’s liquidation, dissolution or winding-up, holders of common stock are entitled, subject to any priorities due to any holders of the Company’s preferred stock, ratably to share in all assets remaining after payment of the Company’s liabilities. Holders of common stock have no preemptive rights nor any other rights to subscribe for shares or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of common stock.
The Company’s common stock is traded on the OTCQX Market under the symbol “EMGC”.
Description of Warrants
On July 28, 2017, in connection with the Company’s recapitalization transaction, the Company issued common stock purchase warrants to certain investors to purchase up to an aggregate of 42,500,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price of $0.20 per share (the "Warrant Shares"). The warrants shall vest and become exercisable as follows: (i) with respect to 17,500,000 Warrant Shares, immediately upon the issuance of the warrants, and (ii) with respect to the remaining 25,000,000 Warrant Shares, at later times tied to the conversion of the Company’s 8.5% Convertible Notes due 2019 and 5.0% Convertible Notes due 2023 outstanding on July 28, 2017 into shares of the Company’s common stock or, if earlier, upon the date that all 8.5% Convertible Notes due 2019 and 5.0% Convertible Notes due 2023 are no longer outstanding. The warrants have an eight year term. The number of Warrant Shares is subject to anti-dilution adjustment provisions.
Preferred Stock
The Company’s Board of Directors is authorized, subject to any limitations prescribed by law, without further shareholder approval, to issue from time to time up to an aggregate of 40,000,000 shares of the Company’s preferred stock, in one or more series. Each series of preferred stock to be issued, if any, will have such number of shares, designations, preferences, powers and qualifications and special or relative rights or privileges as will be determined by the Company’s board of directors, which may include, among other things, dividend rights, voting rights, redemption and sinking fund provisions, liquidation preferences, conversion rights and preemptive rights.  The rights of the holders of the Company’s common stock will be subject to the rights of holders of any 

preferred stock outstanding and issued in the future.  The issuance of preferred stock, while providing desirable flexibility in connection with the possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or of discouraging a third party from acquiring, a majority of our outstanding voting stock.
 
Anti-Takeover Effects of Florida Law; Our Certificate of Incorporation and Our Bylaws
Florida law, the Company’s articles of incorporation and the Company’s bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying, deferring or discouraging another party from acquiring control of us. These provisions, which are summarized below, are intended to discourage coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of the Company to first negotiate with the Company’s Board.
Affiliated Transactions. The affiliated transactions provisions of the Florida Business Corporation Act are designed to deter hostile takeovers. These provisions protect minority shareholders in merger offers by ensuring that specific transactions are either approved by an appropriate number of disinterested directors or shareholders, or result in a "fair price" to all shareholders. The effect of these provisions, however, may be to discourage takeovers of the Company. 
No Cumulative Voting.  Under Florida law, the right to vote cumulatively does not exist unless the articles of incorporation specifically authorizes cumulative voting. The Company’s Articles of Incorporation, as amended (the “Articles of Incorporation”), do not grant shareholders the right to vote cumulatively. The inability of a shareholder to cumulate votes for directors could prevent a challenger to the incumbent Board from being able to obtain representation on the Board.
Blank Check Preferred Stock. The Company believes that the availability of the preferred stock under the Articles of Incorporation provides flexibility in addressing corporate issues that may arise. Having these authorized shares available for issuance will allow the Company to issue shares of preferred stock without the expense and delay of a special shareholders’ meeting. The authorized shares of preferred stock, as well as shares of common stock, will be available for issuance without further action by shareholders, with the exception of any actions required by applicable law or the rules of any stock exchange on which the Company’s securities may be listed. The Company’s Board of Directors will have the power, subject to applicable law, to issue classes or series of preferred stock that could, depending on the terms of the class or series, impede the completion of a merger, tender offer or other takeover attempt.Exhibit

Exhibit 4.4

DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES

The following is a brief description of the securities of Sutter Rock Capital Corp. a Maryland corporation (the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”), registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). This description of our securities does not purport to be complete and is subject to and qualified in its entirety by reference to the applicable provisions of Maryland General Corporation Law (the “MGCL”) and the full text of our charter and bylaws.  As of December 31, 2019 and the date hereof, our common stock is the only securities that we have registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act.  
Common Stock
As of December 31, 2019, our authorized stock consisted of 100,000,000 shares of stock, par value $0.01 per share, of which 17,564,244 shares were outstanding as of December 31, 2019. Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “SSSS.” As of December 31, 2019, options issued under our 2019 Equity Incentive Plan allowing certain of our executive officers to purchase 1,125,000 shares of our common stock were outstanding.  None of such options have been exercised.  There are no outstanding warrants to purchase our common stock. Under Maryland law, our stockholders generally are not personally liable for our debts or obligations.

Under our charter our board of directors is authorized to classify and reclassify any unissued shares of stock into other classes or series of stock without obtaining stockholder approval. As permitted by the Maryland General Corporation Law, our charter provides that the board of directors, without any action by our stockholders, may amend the charter from time to time to increase or decrease the aggregate number of shares of stock or the number of shares of stock of any class or series that we have authority to issue.

All shares of our common stock have equal rights as to earnings, assets, voting, and distributions and, when they are issued, will be duly authorized, validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable. Distributions may be paid to the holders of our common stock if, as and when authorized by our board of directors and declared by us out of assets legally available therefor. Shares of our common stock have no preemptive, conversion or redemption rights and are freely transferable, except where their transfer is restricted by federal and state securities laws or by contract. In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, each share of our common stock would be entitled to share ratably in all of our assets that are legally available for distribution after we pay all debts and other liabilities and subject to any preferential rights of holders of our preferred stock, if any preferred stock is outstanding at such time. Each share of our common stock is entitled to one vote on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders, including the election of directors. Except as provided with respect to any other class or series of stock, the holders of our common stock will possess exclusive voting power. There is no cumulative voting in the election 

of directors, which means that holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock can elect all of our directors, and holders of less than a majority of such shares will be unable to elect any director.

Certain Provisions of the Maryland General Corporation Law and Our Charter and Bylaws

The Maryland General Corporation Law and our charter and bylaws contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a potential acquirer to acquire us by means of a tender offer, proxy contest or otherwise, the material ones of which are discussed below. These provisions are expected to discourage certain coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids and to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to negotiate first with our board of directors. We expect the benefits of these provisions outweigh the potential disadvantages of discouraging any such acquisition proposals because, among other things, the negotiation of such proposals may improve their terms.

Classified Board of Directors

Our board of directors is divided into three classes of directors serving staggered three-year terms. The current terms of the first, second and third classes expire in 2021, 2022, and 2020, respectively, and in each case, those directors will serve until their successors are elected and qualify. Upon expiration of their terms, directors of each class will be elected to serve for three-year terms and until their successors are duly elected and qualify and each year one class of directors will be elected by the stockholders. A classified Board may render a change in control of us or removal of our incumbent management more difficult. We believe, however, that the longer time required to elect a majority of a classified board of directors will help to ensure the continuity and stability of our management and policies.

Election of Directors

Our bylaws, as authorized by our charter, provide that a plurality of all the votes cast at a meeting of stockholders duly called and at which a quorum is present is required to elect a director. Pursuant to our charter our board of directors may amend the bylaws to alter the vote required to elect directors.

Number of Directors; Vacancies; Removal

Our charter provides that the number of directors will be set only by the board of directors in accordance with our bylaws. Our bylaws provide that a majority of our entire board of directors may at any time increase or decrease the number of directors. However, unless our bylaws are amended, the number of directors may never be less than one nor more than nine. Our charter provides that, at such time as we have at least three independent directors and our common stock is registered under the Exchange Act, as amended, we elect to be subject to the provision of Subtitle 8 of Title 3 of the Maryland General Corporation Law regarding the filling of vacancies on the board of directors. Accordingly, at such time, except as may be provided by the board of 

directors in setting the terms of any class or series of preferred stock, any and all vacancies on the board of directors may be filled only by the affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining directors in office, even if the remaining directors do not constitute a quorum, and any director elected to fill a vacancy will serve for the remainder of the full term of the directorship in which the vacancy occurred and until a successor is elected and qualifies, subject to any applicable requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”).

Our charter provides that a director may be removed only for cause, as defined in our charter, and then only by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast in the election of directors.

Action by Stockholders

Under the Maryland General Corporation Law, stockholder action can be taken only at an annual or special meeting of stockholders or (unless the charter provides for stockholder action by less than unanimous written consent, which our charter does not) by unanimous written consent in lieu of a meeting. These provisions, combined with the requirements of our bylaws regarding the calling of a stockholder-requested special meeting of stockholders discussed below, may have the effect of delaying consideration of a stockholder proposal until the next annual meeting.

Advance Notice Provisions for Stockholder Nominations and Stockholder Proposals

Our bylaws provide that with respect to an annual meeting of stockholders, nominations of persons for election to the board of directors and the proposal of business to be considered by stockholders may be made only (1) pursuant to our notice of the meeting, (2) by the board of directors or (3) by a stockholder who is entitled to vote at the meeting and who has complied with the advance notice procedures of our bylaws. With respect to special meetings of stockholders, only the business specified in our notice of the meeting may be brought before the meeting. Nominations of persons for election to the board of directors at a special meeting may be made only (1) pursuant to our notice of the meeting, (2) by the board of directors or (3) provided that the board of directors has determined that directors will be elected at the meeting, by a stockholder who is entitled to vote at the meeting and who has complied with the advance notice provisions of the bylaws.

The purpose of requiring stockholders to give us advance notice of nominations and other business is to afford our board of directors a meaningful opportunity to consider the qualifications of the proposed nominees and the advisability of any other proposed business and, to the extent deemed necessary or desirable by our board of directors, to inform stockholders and make recommendations about such qualifications or business, as well as to provide a more orderly procedure for conducting meetings of stockholders. Although our bylaws do not give our board of directors any power to disapprove stockholder nominations for the election of directors or proposals recommending certain action, they may have the effect of precluding a contest for the election of directors or the consideration of stockholder proposals if proper procedures are not followed and of discouraging or deterring a third party from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect its own slate of directors or to approve its own proposal without regard to 

whether consideration of such nominees or proposals might be harmful or beneficial to us and our stockholders.

Calling of Special Meetings of Stockholders

Our bylaws provide that special meetings of stockholders may be called by our board of directors and certain of our officers. Additionally, our bylaws provide that, subject to the satisfaction of certain procedural and informational requirements by the stockholders requesting the meeting, a special meeting of stockholders will be called by the secretary of the corporation upon the written request of stockholders entitled to cast not less than a majority of all the votes entitled to be cast at such meeting.

Approval of Extraordinary Corporate Action; Amendment of Charter and Bylaws

Under Maryland law, a Maryland corporation generally cannot dissolve, amend its charter, merge, convert, sell all or substantially all of its assets, engage in a share exchange or engage in similar transactions outside the ordinary course of business, unless approved by the affirmative vote of stockholders entitled to cast at least two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast on the matter. However, a Maryland corporation may provide in its charter for approval of these matters by a lesser percentage, but not less than a majority of all of the votes entitled to be cast on the matter. Our charter generally provides for approval of charter amendments and extraordinary transactions by the stockholders entitled to cast at least a majority of the votes entitled to be cast on the matter. Our charter also provides that the following matters require the approval of stockholders entitled to cast at least 80% of the votes entitled to be cast: (i) certain charter amendments; (ii) any proposal for our conversion, whether by merger or otherwise, from a closed-end company to an open-end company; (iii) any proposal for our liquidation or dissolution; or (iv) any proposal regarding a merger, consolidation, share exchange or sale or exchange of all or substantially all of our assets that the Maryland General Corporation Law requires to be approved by our stockholders. However, if such amendment or proposal is approved by a majority of our continuing directors (in addition to approval by our board of directors), such amendment or proposal may be approved by a majority of the votes entitled to be cast on such a matter. The “continuing directors” are defined in our charter as (1) our current directors, (2) those directors whose nomination for election by the stockholders or whose election by the directors to fill vacancies is approved by a majority of our current directors then on the board of directors or (3) any successor directors whose nomination for election by the stockholders or whose election by the directors to fill vacancies is approved by a majority of continuing directors or the successor continuing directors then in office. In any event, in accordance with the requirements of the 1940 Act, any amendment or proposal that would have the effect of changing the nature of our business so as to cause us to cease to be, or to withdraw our election as, a business development company would be required to be approved by a majority of our outstanding voting securities, as defined under the 1940 Act.

Our charter and bylaws provide that the board of directors will have the exclusive power to make, alter, amend or repeal any provision of our bylaws.

No Appraisal Rights

Except with respect to appraisal rights arising in connection with the Control Share Act discussed below, as permitted by the Maryland General Corporation Law, our charter provides that stockholders will not be entitled to exercise appraisal rights unless a majority of the board of directors shall determine such rights apply.

Control Share Acquisitions

The Maryland General Corporation Law, pursuant to the Control Share Act (the “Control Share Act”), provides that control shares of a Maryland corporation acquired in a control share acquisition have no voting rights except to the extent approved by a vote of two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast on the matter. Shares owned by the acquiror, by officers or by directors who are employees of the corporation are excluded from shares entitled to vote on the matter. Control shares are voting shares of stock which, if aggregated with all other shares of stock owned by the acquiror or in respect of which the acquiror is able to exercise or direct the exercise of voting power (except solely by virtue of a revocable proxy), would entitle the acquiror to exercise voting power in electing directors within one of the increasing ranges of voting power listed in the Control Share Act. The requisite stockholder approval must be obtained each time an acquiror crosses one of the thresholds of voting power. Control shares do not include shares the acquiring person is then entitled to vote as a result of having previously obtained stockholder approval. A control share acquisition means the acquisition of control shares, subject to certain exceptions. 

Our bylaws contain a provision exempting from the Control Share Act any and all acquisitions by any person of our shares of stock. There can be no assurance that such provision will not be amended or eliminated at any time in the future. However, we will amend our bylaws to be subject to the Control Share Act only if our board of directors determines that it would be in our best interests and if the SEC staff does not object to our determination that our being subject to the Control Share Act does not conflict with the 1940 Act. The SEC staff has issued informal guidance setting forth its position that certain provisions of the Control Share Act would, if implemented, violate Section 18(i) of the 1940 Act. 

Business Combinations

Under Maryland law, “business combinations” between a Maryland corporation and an interested stockholder or an affiliate of an interested stockholder are prohibited for five years after the most recent date on which the interested stockholder becomes an interested stockholder (the “Business Combination Act”). These business combinations include a merger, consolidation, share exchange or, in circumstances specified in the statute, an asset transfer or issuance or reclassification of equity securities. An interested stockholder is defined as:
	
			
	 
	•
	any person who beneficially owns 10% or more of the voting power of the corporation’s outstanding voting stock; or

A person is not an interested stockholder under this statute if the board of directors approved in advance the transaction by which the stockholder otherwise would have become an interested 

stockholder. However, in approving a transaction, the board of directors may provide that its approval is subject to compliance, at or after the time of approval, with any terms and conditions determined by the board of directors.
	
			
	 
	•
	an affiliate or associate of the corporation who, at any time within the two-year period prior to the date in question, was the beneficial owner of 10% or more of the voting power of the then outstanding voting stock of the corporation.

After the five-year prohibition, any business combination between the Maryland corporation and an interested stockholder generally must be recommended by the board of directors of the corporation and approved by the affirmative vote of at least:
	
			
	 
	•
	80% of the votes entitled to be cast by holders of outstanding shares of voting stock of the corporation; and

These super-majority vote requirements do not apply if the corporation’s common stockholders receive a minimum price, as defined under Maryland law, for their shares in the form of cash or other consideration in the same form as previously paid by the interested stockholder for its shares.
	
			
	 
	•
	two-thirds of the votes entitled to be cast by holders of voting stock of the corporation other than shares held by the interested stockholder with whom or with whose affiliate the business combination is to be effected or held by an affiliate or associate of the interested stockholder.

The statute permits various exemptions from its provisions, including business combinations that are exempted by the board of directors before the time that the interested stockholder becomes an interested stockholder. Our board of directors has adopted a resolution that any business combination between us and any other person is exempted from the provisions of the Business Combination Act, provided that the business combination is first approved by the board of directors, including a majority of the directors who are not interested persons as defined in the 1940 Act. This resolution may be altered or repealed in whole or in part at any time; however, our board of directors will adopt resolutions so as to make us subject to the provisions of the Business Combination Act only if the board of directors determines that it would be in our best interests and if the SEC staff does not object to our determination that our being subject to the Business Combination Act does not conflict with the 1940 Act. If this resolution is repealed, or the board of directors does not otherwise approve a business combination, the statute may discourage others from trying to acquire control of us and increase the difficulty of consummating any offer.

Conflict with 1940 Act

Our bylaws provide that, if and to the extent that any provision of the Maryland General Corporation Law, including the Control Share Act (if we amend our bylaws to be subject to such Act) and the Business Combination Act, or any provision of our charter or bylaws conflicts with any provision of the 1940 Act, the applicable provision of the 1940 Act will control.

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