SECTION 46. Offer of preferred stock to common shareholders

Upon any issue of preferred stock the new shares shall, unless the common stockholders shall, with the approval of the department, otherwise provide, first be offered to the common stockholders in the manner prescribed in sections fifty and fifty-one of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine, including the holders of such of its evidences of indebtedness outstanding as on their face entitle the holders thereof to participate in the right to subscribe to such shares; and any shares of the preferred stock which shall not have been duly subscribed and paid for by the common stockholders or their assigns and by holders of such evidences of indebtedness, and all of the preferred shares, if the common stockholders so determine and the department approves, may be sold in the manner and subject to section fifty-one of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine, or in any other manner, at not less than par, which the department may approve. In case of any increase in the common stock of the corporation, holders of preferred stock shall be entitled to have offered to them shares of the new stock in the manner provided in sections fifty and fifty-one of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine, whenever the vote creating such preferred stock as approved by the department shall so provide.