Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for Cheniere Energy, Inc. Our host for today's call is Andrea Botta. [Operator Instructions] I'll now turn the call over to your host, Mr. Botta. You may begin, sir.

Hi. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Andrea Botta, Chairman of the Board of Cheniere Energy, and it is my pleasure to all of you to our first virtual Annual Meeting of Shareholders. It's 3:00 p.m., and in accordance with the notice of the meeting, I call to order the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Cheniere Energy, Inc. I would like to make a few announcements with respect to the conduct of today's meeting. Please note that you should not vote during this meeting if you have already completed and returned a proxy card or otherwise voted, unless you wish to change the voting instruction you previously submitted. You may vote online through the meeting website during the course of the meeting. Following the voting, we will open the meeting to shareholders' questions. Before proceeding to the business of the meeting, I would like to acknowledge Jack Fusco, our President and Chief Executive Officer, our Directors and officers. Sean Markowitz will report on the mailing of the notice of this meeting and the presence of the quorum. Sean?

Thank you, Andrea. This meeting is held pursuant to notice mailed on or about April 10, 2020, to each shareholder of record on March 30, 2020, as updated by the additional soliciting materials filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 24, 2020. A list of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting has been available at the company's headquarters for the past 10 days and is available during this meeting for examination on the website used to access the meeting by any shareholder desiring to do so. All documents concerning the call and notice of the meeting will be filed with the records of the meeting. We have present today, including by proxy, holders of at least 217,811,437 shares of the company's voting capital stock. This is 86.4% of the outstanding voting shares of the company, a required quorum is a majority of outstanding voting stock.

Thank you. I hereby declare a quorum present at the meeting. Sean Markowitz and [ Shan Bank ] are serving as inspectors of election, and Broadridge Financial Solutions, an independent third party, will perform the tabulation of proxies and ballots. The next order of business is to vote on the items as outlined in the proxy statement. Item 1 is the election of Directors. The 11 nominees for the election of the Directors are: G. Andrea Botta; Jack Fusco; Vicky Bailey; Nuno Brandolini; Michele Evans; David Foley; David Kilpatrick; Andrew Langham; Courtney Mather; Donald Robillard, Jr.; and Neal Shear. Additional information about each of these directors is available in the proxy statement. I declare that they are duly nominated. Item #2 is the advisory and nonbinding vote to approve the compensation for the company's named Executive Officer for 2019. Item 3 is the ratification of KPMG LLP as independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. Item 4 is to approve the Cheniere Energy, Inc. 2020 incentive plan. Item 5 is the vote on the shareholder proposal regarding climate change risk analysis. We will now play a recorded statement by Mr. Stewart Taggart. Mr. Taggart's proposal and supporting argument is contained in the proxy statement as has been submitted.

Hello, everyone. My name is Stewart Taggart. Like you, I'm a Cheniere shareholder. In explaining my resolution, I'm going to start with the good news. Cheniere supports the Paris Climate Accord. The accord calls for net zero global carbon emissions after 2050. For its part, Cheniere sees liquid natural gas as a transition fuel for beating the accord's longer-term goals. The problem, however, is that falling renewable energy prices increasingly suggest liquid natural gas may be too little, too late to help achieve these goals. As a result, Cheniere's LNG faces early obsolescence risk. Cheniere's investors need to hear more on this from management. The Paris Accord calls for net zero global carbon emissions after 2050. That's about the same time, some Cheniere export contracts expire. One possibility is Cheniere customers continue buying LNG after 2050 and simply pay prevailing future carbon prices to do so. Another possibility is investing in carbon capture and storage. A third possibility is low carbon wind and solar simply put LNG out of business. Carbon prices emission offsets falling cost renewables; each presents risk for liquid natural gas' business model, and therefore, our senior shareholdings. Larry Fink, Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, Cheniere's third largest investor says: "Climate change is now a defining factor in company's long-term prospects." Cheniere's Senior Vice President, Christopher Smith says: "Every one of our customers resides in a country that's part of the Paris Climate Accord." And even Cheniere's hometown newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, says: "Climate action represents, if not an existential threat of radical shifting of the U.S. energy sector's business model." BlackRock's Larry Fink cares about this. Cheniere's Christopher Smith Cares about this. The Houston Chronicle cares about this. As Cheniere shareholders, we need to care, too. As markets evolve due to climate change, Cheniere's LNG business faces obsolescence risk we all need to know more. In opposing my shareholder resolution before the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cheniere argued it is not compelled to take heed of Paris Accord Goals. That's true, but it is a contradiction, if Cheniere emphasizes its support for the Paris Climate Accord in public, while emphasizing its lack of obligation in less public regulatory filings. It indicates Cheniere sees reducing climate change as simply somebody else's department. That raises environmental, social and governance risk, contrary to the interest of Cheniere investors. My shareholder resolution seeks greater clarity on this from Cheniere management. The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed with me. It's a legitimate investor issue Cheniere and others in the LNG industry need to address. Please vote yes on shareholder proposal #5. That's the one entitled, The Climate Change Risk Analysis.

Thank you, Mr. Taggart. For the reasons stated in the proxy statement, the Board has considered this proposal and recommends a vote against the proposal. This concludes the introduction of the proposals to be presented at the meeting. The polls for voting on all matters before this meeting are hereby open at this time. If you have not voted yet or wish to change your previously cast vote, please do so via the website used to access the meeting. Please remember that if you have already voted by proxy, it's not necessary to vote again. [Voting]

The polls for voting on the matters before this meeting are hereby closed. The preliminary report from the inspectors of election shows that G. Andrea Botta, Jack Fusco, Vicky Bailey, Nuno Brandolini, Michele Evans, David Foley, David Kilpatrick, Andrew Langham, Courtney Mather, Donald Robillard, Jr. and Neal Shear have been elected to serve as Director of Cheniere Energy, each to hold office for a 1-year term, expiring at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The preliminary report also shows that on an advisory and nonbinding basis, the shareholders approved the compensation for the company named Executive Officer for 2019. The shareholders ratified the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. The shareholders approved the Cheniere Energy, Inc. 2020 incentive plan. And the shareholders did not approve the shareholder proposal regarding climate change risk analysis. That concludes the order of business as outlined in the proxy statement. The business portion of the meeting is now closed, and the meeting is officially adjourned. I will now open the floor for questions. Please follow the instruction provided on the virtual meeting screen to submit questions.

Okay. We have one question that asks whether Cheniere is looking at opening any export facility in the Pacific Coast, perhaps in Mexico. Jack?

This is Jack Fusco, the President and CEO of Cheniere Energy. I'll just say, we evaluate a lot of investment opportunities around the world. At the current moment though, there was nothing more value-creating that we can do for our shareholders than continue to invest in our own organic growth at our 2 facilities, like our 2 expansion trains, Corpus Christi #3 and Sabine Pass #6, to continue to pay down debt or buy back our stock.

Thank you very much. There are no other questions. And therefore, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the shareholders who attended the meeting, as well as those who were not able to be present but submitted their proxies. We appreciate your investment in Cheniere. Thank you.

This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a good day.