To: HSBC Bank USA, National Association Dear Sirs:
For the purpose of inducing you to issue your standby Letters of Credit (herein called the “Credits”) upon application by the Applicant who has executed the application on the reverse side and for other valuable consideration, receipt of which is hereby duly acknowledged, the Applicant hereby agrees as follows with respect to the Credits:
1.As to drafts, demands or drawings under, or purporting to be under the Credits which are payable in United States Currency, we agree in the case of each sight draft, to reimburse you at your office in immediately available funds on demand, and in the case of each time draft, at the date of maturity of such time draft, the amount due on such draft, or, if so demanded by you, to pay at your office in advance the amount to pay such draft. If no draft is to be presented under any Credit, we agree to pay you upon demand for any amounts paid by you under any Credit in conformity with the terms of such Credit. In all instances you have the right to set-off any amount due you under any Credit against any account at any branch of yours, your subsidiaries or affiliates.
2.As to drafts, demands or drawings under, or purporting to be under, the Credits which are payable in currency other than United States Currency we agree: in the case of each sight draft, demand or drawing to reimburse you at your office, on demand, the equivalent of the amount paid in United States Currency as determined by your rate of exchange, on the day such draft, demand or drawing was paid, for the purchase of the currency in which such draft, demand or drawing is drawn.
3.We agree to pay you, on demand, your usual commission and all charges and expenses paid or incurred by you or your correspondents in connection therewith, including costs of reserve requirements, if any.
4.If for any reason you make payment under the Credits prior to your receipt of the aforementioned funds from the undersigned, we agree to pay you interest per annum at a rate equal to the then publicly announced HSBC Bank USA, National Association Prime Rate, as it may change from time to time, plus 3% covering the period commencing from the day of your payment and ending upon your receipt of the funds we remit to you for the actual days elapsed on the basis of a 360-day year.
5.We agree that in the event of any extension of the maturity or time for presentment of drafts, or documents, or any other modification of the terms of any Credits, at the request of any of us, with or without notification to the others, or in the event of any increase in the amount of any Credits at our request, this agreement shall be binding upon us with regard to such Credits so increased or otherwise modified, to drafts, documents and property covered thereby, and to any action taken by you or any of your correspondents in accordance with such extension, increase or other modification.
6.Applicant agrees that failure of the applicant to object in writing to the issuers payment and/or acceptance of any drawings under a credit by the earlier of (A) 5 days after the date the applicant receives the documents and (B) 5 days after the date the applicant receives any notice including but not limited to advices of payment that the Issuer has paid and/or accepted a conforming presentation under the documentary credit shall be conclusively deemed to be an acceptance by the applicant that the presentation is in conformity with the terms and conditions of the credit. Both the Issuer and the applicant agree that 5 days is a reasonable time.
7.The users of the Credits shall be deemed our agents and we assume all risk for their acts or omissions. Neither you nor your correspondents shall assume any liability to anyone for failure to pay or to accept if such failure is due to any restriction in force at time and place of presentment, and we agree to indemnify you and hold you harmless from any consequences that may arise therefrom. Neither you nor your correspondents shall be responsible for verifying the existence of any act, condition or statement made by any party in relation to their drawing or presentment under the Credits or in verifying or passing judgment on the reasonableness of any statement made by any party in relation to their drawing or presentment under the Credits; for the validity, sufficiency or genuineness of documents, even if such documents should in fact prove to be in any or all respects invalid, insufficient, fraudulent or forged; for failure to give any notice; for any breach of contract between the
beneficiary of the Credits, and ourselves or any of us. Furthermore, neither you nor your correspondents shall be responsible for errors, omissions, interruptions or delays in transmission or delivery of any messages, by mail, cable, telegraph, wireless or otherwise, whether or not they be in cipher, nor shall you be responsible for any error, neglect, or default of any of your correspondents; and none of the above shall affect, impair, or prevent the vesting of any of your rights or powers hereunder. In furtherance and extension and not in limitation of the specific provisions hereinbefore set forth, we agree that any action taken or not taken by you or by any correspondent of yours, under or in connection with the Credits or the relative drafts, documents or property if taken or not taken in good faith, shall be binding on us and shall not put you or your correspondents under any resulting liability to us, except if due solely to your gross negligence or willful misconduct.
8.We agree to procure promptly any licenses or certificates that may be required in the execution of the contract, agreement or understanding underlying the Credits, and to provide you, as you may anytime require or request, with copies of documents, agreements or other information and evidence. Such requests may extend to financial or other information regarding the undersigned which the undersigned agrees to provide in a prompt manner.
9.As security for the payment or performance of all our present or future obligations or liabilities of any and all kinds to you, whether incurred by us as maker, endorser, drawer, acceptor, guarantor, accommodation party or otherwise, due or to become due, secured or unsecured, absolute or contingent, joint or several, and howsoever or whensoever acquired by us (all of which are herein collectively referred to as “Obligations’), we hereby grant to you a security interest and a lien in and upon any of our property, or property in which we may have an interest, which is now or may at any time hereafter come into your possession or control, or in the possession or control of your subsidiaries or affiliates, or into the possession or control of any other party acting in your behalf, whether for the express purpose of being used by you as collateral security or for safekeeping or for any other different purpose, including such property as may be in transit by mail or carrier for any purpose or covered or affected by any documents in your possession or control or in the possession or control of your subsidiaries or affiliates, or in the possession or control of any third party acting in your behalf.
10.Upon our failure to pay any Obligations when becoming or made due, as aforesaid, you shall have, in addition to all other rights and remedies allowed by law, the rights and remedies of a secured party under the Uniform Commercial Code as in effect in the State of New York at any time and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you may immediately, without demand of performance and without notice of intention to sell or of time or place of sale or of redemption or other notice or demand whatsoever to us, all of which are hereby expressly waived, and without advertisement, sell at public or private sale grant options to purchase or otherwise realize upon, in New York or elsewhere, the whole or from time to time any part of the collateral upon which you shall have a security interest or lien as aforesaid, or any interest which the undersigned may have therein, and after deducting from the proceeds of sale or other disposition of said collateral all expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorney’s fees for legal services of every kind and other expenses as set forth below) shall apply the residue of such proceeds toward the payment of any of the Obligations, in such order as you shall elect, we remaining liable for any deficiency remaining unpaid after such application. If notice of any sale or other disposition is required by law to be given, we hereby agree that a notice sent at least five days before the time of any intended public sale or of the time after which any private sale or other disposition of the said collateral is to be made, shall be reasonable notice of such sale or other disposition. At any such sale or other disposition you may yourself purchase the whole or any part of the said collateral sold, free from any right of redemption on the part of us, which right is hereby waived and released. We agree that the said collateral secures, and further agree to pay on demand, all expenses (including but not limited to reasonable