§ 83. Transfer of franchises, property or stocks. 1. No steam
corporation shall transfer or lease its franchise, works or system or
any part of such franchise, works or system to any other person or
corporation or contract for the operation of its works and system,
without the written consent of the commission.

2. The permission and approval of the commission to the exercise of a
franchise under section eighty-one of this article, or to the
assignment, transfer or lease of a franchise under this section shall
not be construed to revive or validate any lapsed or invalid franchise
or to enlarge or add to the powers and privileges contained in the grant
of any franchise or to waive any forfeiture.

3. No steam corporation shall directly or indirectly acquire the stock
or bonds of any other corporation incorporated for, or engaged in, the
same or a similar business, or proposing to operate or operating under a
franchise from the same or any other municipality, unless authorized so
to do by the commission.

4. Save where stock shall be transferred or held for the purpose of
collateral security only with the consent of the commission, no stock
corporation of any description, domestic or foreign, company, including,
but not limited to, a limited liability company, association, including
a joint stock association, partnership, including a limited liability
partnership, or person, other than a steam corporation, a street
railroad corporation, a gas corporation, an electric corporation, or a
gas and electric corporation, shall purchase or acquire, take or hold,
more than ten per centum of the voting capital stock issued by any steam
corporation organized or existing under or by virtue of the laws of this
state, except that a corporation now lawfully holding a majority of the
voting capital stock of any steam corporation may with the consent of
the commission acquire and hold the remainder of the voting capital
stock of such steam corporation or any portion thereof.

5. No consent shall be given by the commission to the acquisition of
any stock in accordance with this section unless it shall have been
shown that such acquisition is in the public interest. Nothing herein
contained shall be construed to prevent the holding of any stock
heretofore lawfully acquired, nor to prevent, upon the surrender or
exchange of such stock pursuant to a reorganization plan, the purchase,
acquisition, taking or holding of a proportionate amount of stock of any
new corporation organized to take over, at foreclosure or other sale,
the property of any corporation whose stock has been thus surrendered or
exchanged; but the proportion of the voting capital stock of the new
corporation held by a stock corporation, company, association,
partnership or person and acquired by it by any such surrender or
exchange of stock shall not without the consent of the commission exceed
the proportion of the voting capital stock held by it in the former
corporation.

6. Every contract, assignment, transfer or agreement for transfer of
any stock by or through any person or corporation to any corporation,
company, association, partnership or person, in violation of any
provision of this chapter, shall be void and of no effect, and no such
transfer or assignment shall be made upon the books of any such
steamheating corporation, or shall be recognized as effective for any
purpose.