(a) A corporation may, by amendment of its articles pursuant to this section, change its status to that of a social purpose corporation, nonprofit public benefit corporation, nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, nonprofit religious corporation, or cooperative corporation.

(b) The amendment of the articles to change status to a nonprofit corporation shall revise the statement of purpose, delete the authorization for shares and any other provisions relating to authorized or issued shares, make such other changes as may be necessary or desired, and, if any shares have been issued, provide either for the cancellation of those shares or for the conversion of those shares to memberships of the nonprofit corporation. The amendment of the articles to change status to a cooperative corporation shall revise the statement of purpose, make such other changes as may be necessary or desired, and, if any shares have been issued, provide for the cancellation of those shares or for the conversion of those shares to memberships of the cooperative corporation, if necessary.

(c) If shares have been issued, an amendment to change status to a nonprofit corporation shall be approved by all of the outstanding shares of all classes regardless of limitations or restrictions on the voting rights thereof and an amendment to change status to a cooperative corporation shall be approved by the outstanding shares (Section 152) of each class regardless of limitations or restrictions on the voting rights thereof.

(d) In the case of a change of status to a social purpose corporation:

(1) The corporation shall modify the name of the corporation, revise the statement of purpose, include the statement required by subparagraph (B) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 2602, and make such other conforming changes as may be necessary or desired.

(2) The amendment shall be approved by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of each class, or a greater vote if required in the articles, of outstanding shares (Section 152) of that changing corporation.

(e) If an amendment pursuant to this section is included in a merger agreement, the provisions of this section apply, except that any provision for cancellation or conversion of shares shall be in the merger agreement rather than in the amendment of the articles.

(f) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), if a corporation is a mutual water company within the meaning of Section 2705 of the Public Utilities Code and under the terms of the status change each outstanding share is converted to a membership of a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, an amendment to change status to a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation shall be approved by the outstanding shares (Section 152) of each class regardless of limitations or restrictions on the voting rights thereof.

(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 694, Sec. 4. (SB 1301) Effective January 1, 2015.)