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Corp. Code, § 403 · Chapter 4. Shares and Share Certificates

Corp. Code, § 403

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) When so provided in the articles, a corporation may issue shares convertible within the time or upon the happening of one or more specified events and upon the terms and conditions that are stated in the articles if any of the following conditions apply:

(1) At the option of the holder or automatically upon either the vote of at least a majority of the outstanding shares of the class or series to be converted or upon the happening of one or more specified events, into shares of any class or series.

(2) If it is a corporation which has a license or franchise from a governmental agency to conduct its business or a member corporation of a national securities exchange registered under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the license, franchise or membership of which is conditioned upon some or all of the holders of its stock possessing prescribed qualifications, to the extent necessary to prevent the loss of such license, franchise or membership or to reinstate it, at the option of the corporation, into shares of any class or series or into any other security of the corporation.

(3) If the corporation is a “listed corporation” as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 301.5, both at the time of the original issuance of the convertible shares and at the time of the conversion, at the option of the corporation into shares of any class or series or into any other security of the corporation, provided that any such securities received upon conversion are listed or qualified for trading on a stock exchange or market system defined in subdivision (d) of Section 301.5.

(b) Unless otherwise provided in the articles, a corporation may issue its debt securities convertible into other debt securities or into shares of the corporation within such time or upon the happening of one or more specified events and upon such terms and conditions as are fixed by the board.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 477, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1997.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CORP&sectionNum=403.
Text hash
sha256 9628915c898ea920e44c1680a04ad5bf8df80dce5d404302be2d1d166cafd8c3
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.