Avient Corporation (AVNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. I'm Bob Patterson, Chairman, President and CEO of Avient Corporation. Welcome to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, our very first as Avient. I now call the meeting to order. Historically, we have held this meeting in person in the Cleveland area. Similar to last year's meeting and given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are again holding a virtual annual meeting this year. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have been impacted during this challenging time, and we express our gratitude to all those contributing to the response and recovery. With me in the conference room today is Jamie Beggs, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Lisa Kunkle, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; and Joe Di Salvo, our Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. In addition to me, the other Board nominees attending remotely are as follows: Robert Abernathy, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halyard Health; Rick Fearon, retired Vice Chairman and Chief Financial and Planning Officer of Eaton; Greg Goff, former Chairman, President and CEO of Andeavor; Bill Jellison, retired Chief Financial Officer of Stryker Corporation; Sandra Beach Lin, retired President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Calisolar; Dr. Kim Ann Mink, former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Innophos Holdings; Kerry Preete, retired Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer of Monsanto Company; Dr. Patricia Verduin, Chief Technology Officer of Colgate-Palmolive Company; and Bill Wulfsohn, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ashland Global Holdings. In addition, participating in the meeting, we have Lynette Horrell and Laura Feller, representing the public accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP, our independent auditors. Lisa Kunkle will now commence and conduct the formal business section of the meeting. At the end of the official items of business, we will answer questions submitted on our website related to the proposals. Lisa?

Thank you, Bob, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us at our 2021 annual meeting of shareholders, which is being conducted via webcast. The agenda and rules of conduct for this meeting are posted on your webcast screen. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, participants are not permitted to use any recording device during the meeting. The polls are open and will remain open until the conclusion of the portion of the meeting where we consider the items of business. If you are a shareholder and have not yet submitted your vote and wish to vote on the proposal, or if you wish to change your vote, you may vote your shares by clicking on the Voting button on your screen. You will need the control number on your proxy materials that you received in order to vote your shares online. I have, for filing with the records of the meeting, an affidavit by Broadridge Financial Solutions, stating that the notice of meeting, proxy statement and annual report were sent to all shareholders of record on or about March 30, 2021. And on March 16, the record date of this meeting, there were 91,294,622 shares issued and outstanding. More than 95% of these shares are present in person or by proxy, and a quorum is present for the conducting of business. Please note that the minutes of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held last year are in my custody as Secretary and are available for inspection by any shareholder. And Michael Solecki of Jones Day has been appointed to serve at this meeting as inspector of election. We have 3 items of business on the agenda this morning. The matters to be voted upon today were fully described in the proxy statement for this meeting and are as follows: the first item is the election as directors for a 1-year term of the 10 nominees named in the proxy statement and just introduced by Bob Patterson; the second item is the consideration of an advisory vote on named executive officer compensation; and the third item is to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young as Avient's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2021. Most voting was completed by proxy prior to the meeting, and these votes have been tabulated by the inspector of election. At this time, the polls will be closed, and we will announce the voting results. The inspector of election has submitted a report on the preliminary results that includes the proxies received up through this morning. The final verified results will appear in our post-meeting report. Each of the 10 nominees for election as director has been elected. The named executive officer compensation has been approved on an advisory basis. And the appointment of Ernst & Young as Avient's independent accounting firm has been ratified. The certificate of the inspector of election will be filed with the records of this meeting. Having completed the formal business of the meeting, I declare the meeting adjourned. We will now open the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions] Joe Di Salvo, our Vice President, Investor Relations, will read aloud any questions received. We will now pause to allow questions to be submitted. Joe, are there any questions?

There are no questions, Lisa.

All right. As there are no questions, I'd like to thank you all for participating in our meeting today. And on behalf of Avient, we wish everyone safety and good health.