Akero Therapeutics, Inc. (AKRO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for Akero Therapeutics. Our host for today's call is Dr. Andrew Cheng, President and CEO. [Operator Instructions] I will now like to turn the call over to your host. Dr. Cheng, you may begin.

Good morning. And welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Akero Therapeutics. We are very pleased to have you with us. I am Andrew Cheng, President and CEO of Akero, and I will preside over today's meeting. We're excited to be hosting our virtual meeting, which allows us to be more inclusive and reach a greater number of stockholders. All stockholders participating in the meeting are attending via the web portal. We will conduct the business portion of our meeting first and answer questions at the end of the meeting. In keeping with the digital approach to this year's meeting, it is now shortly after 9 A.M. Pacific on June 1, and this is -- this meeting is officially called to order. The business before this meeting is described in our notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders and Proxy Statement, a copy of which has been provided to our stockholders. The rules of conduct will govern how we will run the meeting. They are available with the other meeting materials at the bottom right section of the web portal. Before proceeding to the formal business, I would like to introduce the directors and officers of the companies who are here with us today. Our directors are Jane Henderson, Mark Iwicki, Seth Harrison, Graham Walmsley and Kevin Bitterman. Our officers are Jonathan Young, Chief Operating Officer; Tim Rolph, Chief Scientific Officer; William White, Chief Financial Officer; and Kitty Yale, Chief Development Officer. I've asked Sam Zucker of Goodwin Procter, our outside legal counsel, to record the minutes. Broadridge Financial Solutions has acted as the tabulator for this annual meeting and has delivered to Jonathan Young, our Corporate Secretary, a final vote tabulation, signed by an authorized representative of Broadridge. Natalie Hairston of American Election Services will act as the independent Inspector of election. She has taken her oath as the Inspector of election, which will be filed with the company records. [ Mark Canolack ] and Mark Sodano of Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm are with us this morning. They are available to answer appropriate questions raised at this meeting. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the web portal is permitted to use any audio recording device. The Board of Directors fixed the close of business on April 9, 2020, as the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting. An Affidavit has been delivered to the Board attesting to the fact that either the proxy statement and the 2019 annual report on Form 10-K or the documents themselves were mailed on or about April 27, 2020, to all stockholders of record on the date and will be incorporated into the meeting minutes. At this meeting, we are asking stockholders to elect 3 Class I directors. The Board has nominated Andrew Cheng, Jane Henderson and Mark Iwicki, each to hold office until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified or until his or her early resignation or removal, and ratify Deloitte & Touche as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. In order to begin our Second Amended and Restated Bylaws require that a majority of the outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote be represented in person or by proxy at the meeting for us to have a quorum. The stockholder list shows that as of the record date, there were 28,671,222 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. We were informed by the Inspector of election that 20,321,671 shares of common stock or approximately 71% of the voting power on the record date are participating in the meeting, either on behalf of themselves or by proxy. Since this represents more than a majority of the voting power of all issued and outstanding stock entitled to vote on the record date, a quorum is present for purposes of transacting business. This meeting is now duly convened. The report of a quorum and all proxies received at this meeting will be filed in the company's records. We will now consider today's proposals. Election of Class I directors, proposal number one. The first proposal is the election of 3 Class I directors, Andrew Cheng, Jane Henderson and Mark Iwicki, each to hold office until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified or until his or her early resignation or removal. If you would like to ask a question pertaining to this proposal, please complete the designated fields on the web portal. The second proposal before us today is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. If you would like to ask a question pertaining to this proposal, please complete the designated fields on the web portal. We will now open the floor to questions considering the matters to be voted upon. We will pause for 20 seconds while we poll for questions. Please note that any statements that we make today that are other than historical facts are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please be aware that all such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, such as those detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent 10-K. Any forward-looking statements that we make must be considered in light of these factors. Actual results may vary materially. The polls opened at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions here. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or Internet and do not want to change their vote, do not need to take any further action as your shares will be voted accordingly. [Voting]

Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls now closed for the 2020 Akero Therapeutics Annual Stockholder Meeting at 9:08 Pacific Time on June 1, 2020. The Inspector of election has completed the ballots and will certify the voting results. The Inspector of election has provided me with the following preliminary results: Andrew Cheng, Jane Henderson and Mark Iwicki have been elected directors of the company with terms ending at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders in 2023. In addition, the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 has been ratified. Upon certification of Form 8-K with the final results of voting will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 days following the meeting. I direct that the report and certificate of the Inspector of election be filed with the minutes of this meeting. This ends the formal portion of our meeting. There being no other business to properly come before this meeting, let us pause for a moment to compile any questions that may have been submitted via the web portal. As a reminder, we will only address the matters that have been discussed in the formal portion of the annual meeting. Will Dr. Young please advise if we have any questions.

We have no questions appropriately related to the purpose of the meeting.

Thank you. There being no other business to properly come before this meeting, this meeting is now adjourned. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the stockholders who attended this meeting and voted as well as those who submitted their proxies but were not able to be present in person. The 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Akero is now officially adjourned.

This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining. And have a pleasant day.