Ecopetrol S.A. (ECOPETROL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Mr. President, I would like to inform that we have no registered interventions for this point of the agenda. In that case, it's approved -- it's submitted for approval. The election and vote counting committee, you approve? [Voting]

Taking into account the vote in favor, we approve this proposal. Exact results what we presented and registered in the final minutes. The shareholders that wish to vote against or blank vote, please use the same methodology. Use the QR code on the back part of your badge, select the option of your choice and press vote. Once again, if you have any problems, please call one of the helpers with the green T-shirts. Mr. Secretary, if it's approved, let's move on with the agenda.

Yes, Mr. President. The next point is the appointment of the commission for revision and approval of the minutes of the general assembly of shareholders. I would like to tell you that at the General Secretary's Office, we have a proposal from Ana Milena Lopez, where she proposes the candidates to integrate the members of the commission for the approval of the minutes. The text of the communication is the following. But with that January 10, General Assembly of Ecopetrol. But with that, respected gentlemen and madams, in this general assembly shareholders' meeting, I would like to propose that the main and deputy commissioned responsible for the revision and approval of the minutes to be integrated by the following people or their representatives, the Minister of Finance, [Sergio Londoño, acting on behalf of Herman Gonzales and Ana Milena Lopez]. Deputy Commission, Daniel [indiscernible] acting on behalf of [Rafael Mule; Gloria Mercer Marmol, acting on behalf of Lisa Fuentes; Francisco Moreno acting on behalf of Juliana Mejia, respectfully Ana Milena Lopez.]

I kindly ask the people that are part of the list that we just read, please stand up in order to confirm your attendance, your acceptance. Thank you very much. You may be seated. I request the Secretary to inform us if we have registered participations.

Mr. President, we don't have registered intervention.

In that case, I would like to ask the general shareholder's meeting if we can approve this.

Taking into account that, yes, we understand, and we confirm that this proposal has been approved. Exact results we will be presented at the end of the agenda and will be registered in the minutes. Votes in favor, votes against, blank black votes. We kindly request the shareholders that wish to vote against or issue a blank vote take your device, use the QR code. On the back of your badge, select the option of your choice and press vote. If you don't have a smartphone or you have any type of problems, please raise your hand, then one of the helpers with the green T-shirts will come by and help you.

Mr. Secretary, given the fact that we have approved this point of the agenda, we remind the members of the commissions that's the main commission can act for 5 days counted on the first day of the submittings of minute. If there is no response, the Deputy Commissioner will start working which will have 5 business days in order to approve it. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Let's move on, please, with the agenda.

Yes, sir. Moving on now to the presentation of the statutory approval. Mr. President, I would like to inform that we received communication of the nation from the Ministry of Finance as the shareholder of Ecopetrol, where they proposed the General Shareholders' Meeting to reform Article 21 of the social institutes, which you are seeing on the screen and I will read. Article 21 minimal requirements to be part of the Board of Directors. The members of the Board of Directors will be committed to the corporate vision of Ecopetrol and must comply to the following things: Number one, have international knowledge and experience, both international and national and the main activities of Ecopetrol and to have experience and a trusted track record in industry, commercial, financial, corporate risk stock market, administrative or legal experience, have more than 12 years of professional experience, have a good name in the market and not being part of more than 5 Board of Directors, including Ecopetrol. For the Board of Directors, we will consider gender diversity and inclusion criteria, which must comply to the minimum requirements to be part of the Board of Directors included in this proposal or in this article. 30% at least of this Board of Directors must be women. The profiles of the members of the Board of Directors will be revised and updated by the Board of Directors or by the institutional committee that the Board of Directors defines. The shareholder said that this change is aligned to the national development plan in what it lays out for the Board of Directors, which includes as of 2026, 30% inclusion of women in the different Board of Directors. The reform strives to make progress in gender plurality in the Board of Directors and in diversity of the ages by allowing that with less professional experience, new generations can be part of the Board of Directors in the future. According to internal regulations, this proposal went to the corporate government committee and the Board of Directors of Ecopetrol. In addition to that, we would like to inform the shareholders that this society at this corporation through its inclusion policies and the different Board of Directors of the companies of the group and the program for diversity, equality and inclusion has declared its commitment. Hence, this proposal for statuary reforms doubles down on this aspiration.

With that said, Mr. Secretary, I would like to inform you if we have registered interventions.

Mr. President, we have 2 registered interventions. In that case, due to the fact that we have 2 registered interventions, the shareholders that will speak are Mr. [ Cesar Losa and secondly, Martin Rabelo]. I kindly remind you that you have 3 minutes for your intervention and the time is running. Please be reminded that each one of the shareholders or representatives will have 3 minutes, and you must refer to the exact point of the agenda that we're talking about. Mr. Losa, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Greetings to all. Mr. Bonilla, Mr. Roa and Mr. Garcia. I am the President of the Union of so USO, and I would like to speak briefly, I would like to be -- I want to be very brief. First of all, from the union -- we are aligned with this government, which we backed up, specifically in the point regarding energy transition. We feel that it's necessary for the country, actually for the world. But of course, we feel that energy transition must be fair, inclusive and responsible and we must keep in mind that the resources, the money needed for this transition should be given by the industry of oil and gas. Secondly, we greeted from the union, this statutory reform, which allows new people to join and provide new oxygen to the Board of Directors. Also, we greet the transformation that Ecopetrol has embarked on. We think that it's healthy for oil and gas companies, in this case, Ecopetrol to transform into energy companies. This could clearly be seen with what happened with Statoil, a Norwegian company, which became Equinor with the purpose of becoming an energy generation company. But we also see that is very important to not lose the main stope that Ecopetrol has had. Historically, we must keep on investing in oil and gas in exploration, in hydrocarbons in all the lines of business, which are key for the future of Ecopetrol, and they are key to guarantee energy sovereignty in Colombia. We hope that this statutory reform is the transition that takes us to the day, hopefully soon, that one worker of Ecopetrol can finally be part of the Board of Directors of Ecopetrol. We think that it's necessary that the main interest groups that are part of production to have a voice and the space in the Board of Directors as it happens in other companies and even complying to what is established in the national constitution of Colombia and Article 57. And finally, I want to talk about 2 things. And please give me no more than 1 minute, please. We fully support the changes that the new administration has been carrying out in Ecopetrol. Mr. Roa's changes have our full support. Hopefully, with this new HR VP, we can actually eliminate the 01 agreement, which is an anti-union pact, we hope that HR repairs are union as a victim of arm conflict and that you stop seeing the union as an enemy, but you see it as a helper that can help build together with the administration of Ecopetrol. And finally, from our union organization, we wish that the country does well, that the administration of Ecopetrol does well and that we built together, and we strengthen this great company for the good of Colombia, for the good of communities and for the good of the workers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lo. We will now give the floor to Martin Rabelo. You have 3 minutes, please.

Good morning. Greetings to you all. I am also a union leader and I would like to talk about 2 things that for us are very important, which are energy transition and social economic transition in the producing regions. Keeping in mind, that the development of the most important company in Colombia will happen in the regions that everybody has high expectations regarding that democratization process and that change process that our company is going through. We're becoming a company that will develop and manage energy produced in Colombia in the regions. We strive for the social economic dynamic that has the -- we hope to keep that energy transition steady process. We hope that you keep on protecting employment. We hope that we don't have a necessary regional conflicts that affect the production of oil and gas. And that actually the workers in the future, actually become key players in the process of transformation of our company into an energy company. The workers -- that the workers have done our best and our biggest effort in order for hydrocarbons to be exploited in a much cleaner and sustainable fashion in order to generate wealth for the country in order for Colombia to present nowadays, those very hopeful growth figures. We feel and we believe that by stimulating the processes of oil production and exploration, exploitation must be kept outlined together with the energy transition process. And that requires or that means that in the producing regions, we actually strengthen working reconversion. So that labor is diversified. So those regional capabilities are boosted and that workers have the capability of preserving their labor rights and preserving the most important thing to dignify their lives, which is the possibility to work.

Thank you, Mr. Varello. We close the interventions. Mr. Secretary, could you inform us if we have any other information.

Mr. President, we don't have any other proposal alternative for this point. Nevertheless, the [Porvenir], they have requested a voting constancy. So now I would like to submit the reform of Article 21 of the statutes. Taking into account the -- in favor of most of the people, this is approved. If you wish to vote against or in blank vote, please take your device, use the QR code on the back of your badge and vote. Chris, the option of your choice. If you have any problems, please call the helpers with the green T-shirts, which will come to your aid. Due to the fact that this is the last point of the agenda, we kindly request the shareholders to wait for a couple of minutes in order for the voting to finish so we can inform you with the exact results of the voting process. Thank you very much. Please standby. [Voting] [Presentation]

Thank you, shareholders. On the screens, you will see the results of each one of the points of the agenda that were voted on. Summary of the voting. Do you approve the agenda with the 41.2 quorum voted yes, 99.980230%. No, 0.01788. For Proposal B, do you approve the appointment of the President of the general assembly of Ecopetrol? For yes, 99.9891943%. No, 0.01079677%. For Proposal C, do you approve the appointment of the commission of elections in vote counting. Yes, 99.9891926%. No, 0.01079678%. In regards to the number of positions. You can see the application of the electoral number where each one of the people that have been shortlisted were chosen. The first one as you can see on the screen. Do you approve the appointment of the commission for revision and approval of the minutes. Yes, 99.9997230; for no, 0. On the screen, you can see the application of the spot via electro quotient for the positions of the Minister of Finance and for Mr. Sergio Londonio elected the electro quotient and Ana Milena Lopez, elected by the remaining voting. Same thing for the deputies [Daniel Cansejo and Gloria Marmol] chosen via electro quotient and Francisco Moreno elected via remainder voting. Do you approve the statutory reform with the 49.2 quorum for yes, 98.1599991%. And for no only 1.84000881%. Mr President, these are the results of the voting carried out and held today.

Thank you to the people here with us. Thank you very much. Have a great day, and we hope to see you in our General Shareholders' Ordinary Meeting of 2024. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]