Enerflex Ltd. (EFX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Enerflex Annual Meeting 2021. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Steve Savidant, Chair Board of Directors. The floor is yours.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Enerflex Ltd. My name is Stephen Savidant. I am Chair of the Board of Directors of Enerflex, and I will chair the business of today's meeting. We're pleased to host the meeting through the virtual meeting platform, which makes it accessible to all our shareholders regardless of physical location to participate, submit questions and vote. Each of the other 10 current directors of Enerflex is also present virtually at this meeting. Let me introduce them. Fernando Assing lives in Houston, Texas; Robert Boswell, Denver, Colorado; Maureen Cormier Jackson, Calgary, Alberta; Byron Dunn, Dallas, Texas; Stanley Marshall, my perennial favorite, Paradise at Newfoundland; Kevin Reinhart, Calgary, Alberta; Marc Rossiter, our President and CEO, Calgary, Alberta; Juan Carlos Villegas, Santiago, Chile; Michael Weill, Houston, Texas; Helen Wesley, Tampa Bay, Florida; and myself, Calgary, Alberta. In addition to Marc Rossiter, our CEO, each of the other 6 executives at Enerflex is also present at this meeting. And let me introduce them. Sanjay Bishnoi, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; David Izett, Senior Vice President and General Counsel; Helmuth Witulski, President of our Canadian region; Patricia Martinez, President of our Latin America region and Chief Energy Transition Officer; Phil Pyle, President of our International region; and Greg Stewart, President of our U.S. region. The meeting will now come to order. Following the formal portion of our meeting today, Marc Rossiter will offer some brief remarks on the business of Enerflex. In order for this meeting to cover all the business for which it was convened within a reasonable period of time, we have prearranged with persons attending this afternoon to move and second certain resolutions. This procedure is not an attempt to discourage participation, but merely a way to expedite proceedings. The chair will accept questions from registered shareholders and proxy holders on each formal resolution. In addition, after the CEO's remarks, there will be a general question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Amanda Kousinioris will act as secretary of the meeting; and Nazim Nathoo, a representative of AST Trust Company Canada, will act as Scrutineer. I have received a declaration from AST Trust Company as to the mailing of the meeting materials to our shareholders on April 1 of this year, 2021. Business may be transacted at this meeting if 2 or more persons are present, holding or representing by proxy not less than 10% of the shares entitled to vote at the meeting. And the scrutineers confirmed that a quorum of shareholders is present at this meeting. I now declare that the meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. We will conduct each vote by way of an electronic ballot. You will receive a message on the Lumi virtual interface once the polls are open. Polls will be open for all resolutions at the same time. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to casting your vote. Once discussion on all items of business has concluded, I will give you a few moments to enter your votes and then declare voting closed on all resolutions. Following the meeting, a news release will be issued announcing in detail the final voting results. We will run through each of the items on the agenda in turn, responding to questions on that item of business, while it is before the meeting. I now declare the ballots open on all resolutions. The first item of business is for shareholders to receive the financial statements of Enerflex for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the auditor's report thereon. The financials were previously distributed to shareholders and posted to our website and on SEDAR. There's also direct link to Enerflex's 2020 annual report, which also contains the 2020 financials on the info screen for this meeting. The next item of business is the election of directors of Enerflex. I will now entertain certain nominations for 11 positions as directors of Enerflex. Mr. Bishnoi?

My name is Sanjay Bishnoi, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Enerflex. I'm a shareholder, and I nominate Fernando Assing, Robert Boswell, Maureen Cormier Jackson, Byron Dunn, Stanley Marshall, Kevin Reinhart, Marc Rossiter, Stephen Savidant, Juan Carlos Villegas, Michael Weill, Helen Wesley as Directors of Enerflex to hold office until the next annual election of directors or until their successors are elected or appointed, subject to the provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act and the bylaws of Enerflex.

Mr. Chairman, my name is David Izett, Senior Vice President, General Counsel at Enerflex. I'm a shareholder, and I second the nominations.

Thank you, Sanjay and David. As we did not receive any other nominations in compliance with Enerflex's advanced notice bylaw, I declare the nominations closed. We will conduct the election on an individual basis for each director in accordance with our majority voting policy. Is there any question from any registered shareholder or proxy holder?

This is Amanda Kousinioris, Corporate Secretary at Enerflex. I confirm there are no questions at this time, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Amanda. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors of Enerflex. Mr. Rossiter?

Mr. Chairman, my name is Marc Rossiter, President and Chief Executive Officer at Enerflex. I'm a shareholder, and I move that Ernst & Young LLP Chartered Accountants be appointed auditors of Enerflex until the next annual meeting or until their successor is appointed and that their compensation be fixed by the Board of Directors.

Mr. Chairman, this is Sanjay Bishnoi, and I second the motion.

Thank you, Marc and Sanjay. Is there any question from any registered shareholder or proxy holder?

This is Amanda Kousinioris. There are no questions at this time.

Thank you, Amanda. The next item of business is a nonbinding vote on our approach to executive compensation. Mr. Bishnoi?

This is Sanjay Bishnoi. And I move that the nonbinding advisory resolution concerning Enerflex's approach to executive compensation as set forth in the information circular of Enerflex dated March 2, 2021, be approved.

This is David Izett, and I second the motion.

Thank you, Sanjay and David. Is there any question from any registered shareholder or proxy holder?

This is Amanda Kousinioris. There are still no questions, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Amanda. For those of you that have not voted on all resolutions, please do so now as I will shortly close the polls. And I'll close the polls, I'll wait about 30 seconds or so. So there's going to be some blank time here. And then I'll announce that the polls are closed. So please vote now if you wish to. [Voting]

All right. I will now declare the polls are closed. I've received the results of each ballot from the Scrutineer, and I declare all resolutions carried. This now concludes the formal items of business to be dealt with at the meeting. As there is no further business, I declare the meeting terminated, and will turn the meeting over to Marc Rossiter for his brief remarks on the business of Enerflex, following which there will be a question-and-answer session. Over to you, Marc.

Thanks, Steve. Dear shareholders. It's my pleasure to address you today. Enerflex has been a business for over 40 years and has weathered multiple cycles in the natural gas infrastructure industry. This current downturn initiated by the concurrent events of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Saudi oil price conflict is obviously quite unique and has presented many challenges. As the world shifted beneath us, a mentor suggested the following quotation from Andrew Carnegie could provide guidance. "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow in the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory." Since the beginning of this crisis, Enerflex has balanced strict financial management with the need to maintain a motivated and skilled workforce of engineers, designers, craftspeople and field technicians that Carnegie observes will build the new and better factory that represents our future. We have asked a lot of our people in 2020, from compensation actions to working remotely for long periods of time to building, servicing and operating natural gas infrastructure with increased levels of PPE. If you could picture wearing a hard hat, safety glasses, ear defenders and a surgical mask while you're servicing the gas plant in Oman, West Texas or Colombia in August or Fort Nelson in February, for that matter, then you'll admire what our people do as much as I do. Our core competency is technical excellence and modularized equipment. This core competency revolutionized the natural gas gathering and processing industry in the 1980s providing innovative, cost-effective and flexible natural gas infrastructure solutions. The same core competency is as applicable to decarbonizing the oil and gas industry, biofuels and CCUS today as it was to natural gas decades ago. As I consider the Enerflex brand created by John Alder in 1980 and further grown by Blair Goertzen through 2019, and my current leadership team's task to further advance at this time of great change in the energy markets. A fine direction, the words of Abraham Lincoln who said, "It is for us to be dedicated to the unfinished work, which they have thus far so nobly advanced." What separates Enerflex's approach to the energy transition from others is that we believe in manufacturing solutions, not outsourcing them. We have invested in the engineers, designers, craftspeople and skilled field technicians that will allow us to operationalize the energy transition, not simply observe it. As always, it's been an honor to lead the global team at Enerflex, aligning their values, talents and desire for individual accomplishment with the present and future realities of our industry is the very definition of privilege. On the behalf of the Board of Directors, we'd like to thank all of our shareholders for participating in this meeting and, indeed, in being shareholders of this fine company. And we'll now open up for questions. It doesn't seem like there's any questions. So Chair, I would say this meeting is over.

Okay. I just want to thank everybody for participating. I know these things are a little dry. But thank you very much for participating, and I declare the entire meeting over. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.