Encore Capital Group, Inc. (ECPG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Encore Capital Group Annual Stockholder Meeting. [Operator Instructions] I would like to now turn the call over to Michael Monaco, Chair of the Board of Encore. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. My name is Michael Monaco, and I am the Chair of the Board of Encore Capital Group, Inc. It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Encore and to preside over the meeting. On the call today are the members of the Board of Directors, Ashish Masih, President and CEO; Jonathan Clark, Executive Vice President and CFO; Greg Call, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary; Bruce Thomas, Vice President of Investor Relations; Brian Taggart from our independent auditors, BDO USA LLP; and Louis Larsen of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., who will act as our inspector of elections. I'd like to begin by providing an overview of how our meeting will proceed. First, I'll call the meeting to order. Then I'll turn the meeting over to Greg Call, who will go over certain procedural housekeeping items necessary for our corporate record keeping. I will then introduce the 4 items up for vote. We will address any questions submitted through the meeting portal related to the items of -- for vote, and the polls will be open for voting on these items. After the polls are closed, Greg Call will report on the preliminary voting results. Following that, I'll adjourn the formal meeting and we will use the remaining time to take questions from stockholders through our meeting portal. Before I call the meeting to order, I'd like to take a moment to thank Frank Quinlan and Norman Sorensen, who are not standing for reelection, but who have each served on the Board since 2011 and have done tremendous jobs as Directors and have been valued members of the team. With that, I hereby call the meeting to order and ask Greg Call to walk us through the formalities. Greg?

Thank you, Mike. A link to the rules of conduct for the meeting is available in the meeting materials portion of the virtual meeting web portal. I ask everyone to review these rules of conduct and adhere to them. The agenda for the meeting is also available on the virtual meeting web portal. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via webcast is permitted to use any recording or transcribing device. A certified list of stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting is now available for inspection by stockholders on the web portal, links to the company's 2019 annual report and proxy statement are also available in the meeting materials portion of the web portal. Notice of today's meeting and related proxy materials or notice of Internet availability of these materials were mailed beginning on or around April 28, 2020, to all stockholders of record as of April 21, 2020. I would like to note that the remarks made today may contain forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth in the company's first quarter Form 10-Q, the 2019 annual report and other reports on file with the SEC. We encourage you to review that information in conjunction with today's discussion. Stockholders may submit questions through our meeting portal at any time during the meeting. Similar or related questions may be grouped and answered together to avoid repetition and only questions that are germane to the meeting and the business of the company will be addressed. [Operator Instructions] You may vote the shares you hold through our meeting portal until the polls are closed. However, if you've already submitted your proxy vote on these matters, you do not need to vote again unless you want to change your vote. Louis Larsen of Broadridge has advised that the holders of shares representing over 93% of the shares entitled to vote are present in person or represented by proxy, which constitutes a quorum.

Thank you, Greg. I declare that a quorum is present. We are now ready to consider the 4 proposals that are up for stockholder vote. Each of these proposals is discussed in detail in the company's proxy statement. [Operator Instructions] We will address questions on the proposals after all proposals have been presented. The polls are now open to vote on these proposals. The first proposal is the election of 9 Directors to the company's Board of Directors for a 1-year term expiring at the annual meeting to be held in 2021. The Board of Directors has nominated Ash Gupta, Wendy Hannam, Jeff Hilzinger, Angela Knight, Laura Olle, Rich Srednicki, Rich Stovsky, Ashish Masih, and myself, Michael Monaco, to serve as Directors. No other nominations for Directors have been received in accordance with the bylaws of the company. The second proposal is the approval in a nonbinding vote of the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The third proposal is the approval in a nonbinding vote of the frequency of future nonbinding votes on the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The fourth and final proposal is the ratification of the appointment of BDO USA, LLP as the company's independent public accountants for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. We will now address any questions submitted by stockholders on the proposals. Greg Call, have any pertinent questions been submitted?

Mike, there are no pertinent questions on the proposals.

If there are no questions on the proposals, we will close the polls momentarily. If you have not yet voted and wish to do so, please do so now. I will declare the polls closed in a little bit. [Voting]

I now declare the polls closed and all matters have been voted upon by stockholders. Greg Call, will you please report the preliminary results?

The inspector of election has completed the preliminary count of votes. Based on a preliminary report, I hereby declare that the 9 nominees for election as Directors is set forth in the proxy statement have been duly elected as Directors for a 1 year term. The compensation of the company's named Executive Officers has been approved in a nonbinding vote. Stockholders have recommended in a nonbinding vote, a vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers every year and the appointment of BDO USA LLP as the company's independent public accountants for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, has been duly ratified. The final voting results will be reported in a Form 8-K filing with the SEC within 4 business days of today's meeting. And I will now turn the time back over to you, Mike.

Thank you, Greg. As there are no other business to be addressed at the meeting, the formal meeting is now adjourned. Thank you for attending the 2020 Encore Capital Group Annual Stockholders Meeting. I'll now turn the meeting over to Bruce Thomas, Vice President of Investor Relations, to lead the question-and-answer session. Bruce?

Thank you, Mike. [Operator Instructions] I will read the questions and have the appropriate members of management respond. There currently aren't any questions. So I'll give this a few moments. Well, it appears that there are no questions. So that concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for attending today.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.