(a) No person, corporation, partnership, or unincorporated association shall acquire ownership of greater than 40 percent of the voting securities in a company as defined in subdivision 501(3) of this title subject to the supervision of the Public Utility Commission without the approval of the Commission after due notice and opportunity for hearing and a finding on its part that such acquisition will not be contrary to the public good.

(b) For the purposes of this section, voting security means any stock or security presently entitling the owner or holder thereof to vote in the direction or management of the affairs of a company or any security issued under or pursuant to any trust, agreement, or arrangement whereby a trustee or trustees or agent or agents for the owner or holder of such a security are presently entitled to vote in the direction or management of the affairs of a company.

(c) A specified per centum of the outstanding voting securities of such company means such amount of outstanding voting securities of such company as entitles the holder or holders thereof to cast said specified per centum of the aggregate votes which the holders of all the outstanding voting securities of such company are entitled to cast in the direction or management of the affairs of such company. (Added 1987, No. 271 (Adj. Sess.), § 15, eff. June 21, 1988; amended 1999, No. 157 (Adj. Sess.), § 13.)