Foreign corporations.

Any corporation organized on a nonprofit or a cooperative basis for the purpose of supplying electric energy in rural areas and owning and operating electric transmission or distribution lines in a state adjacent to this state shall be permitted to extend its lines into and to transact business in this state without complying with any statute of this state pertaining to the qualification of foreign corporations for the transaction of business in this state. Any such foreign corporation, as a prerequisite to the extension of its lines into and the transaction of business in this state, shall, by an instrument executed and acknowledged in its behalf by its president or vice president under its corporate seal attested by its secretary, designate the secretary of state as its agent to accept service of process in its behalf. If any process is served upon the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall forthwith forward the process by registered mail to the corporation at the address specified in such instrument. Any such corporation may sue and be sued in the courts of this state to the same extent that a cooperative may sue or be sued in such courts. Any such foreign corporation may secure its notes, bonds or other evidences of indebtedness by mortgage, pledge, deed of trust or other encumbrance upon any or all of its then-owned or after-acquired real or personal property, assets or franchises located or to be located in this state and upon the revenues and income.