GATX Corporation (GATX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of GATX Corporation. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to James Ream, Board -- Chair of GATX Corporation. Mr. Ream, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. My name is Jim Ream, and I am the Independent Chair of the Board of Directors of GATX Corporation. Welcome to our 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We are conducting this meeting solely in a virtual format as a live webcast. Links to the proxy statement and our 2022 Annual Report to shareholders are provided on the screen within the documents folder. We hope this virtual meeting will maximize the participation of our shareholders regardless of their location. Bob Lyons, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board is in attendance, and he will make some remarks later in the meeting. In addition to Bob and myself, joining today's virtual meeting are the other independent members of our Board, Diane Aigotti; Anne Arvia; Adam Stanley; David Sutherland; Stephen Wilson; and Paul Yovovich. Also in attendance today are Dan Hoffenkamp, and Blake Veldhuis, both representatives from our independent registered accountants, Ernst & Young; and from Computershare, the inspector of election, Abby Cowart. Now I would like to turn the meeting over to Brian Glassberg, GATX' General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will discuss the conduct of the meeting today. Brian?

Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone. We will conduct this meeting in accordance with the bylaws of GATX Corporation in the rules of conduct posted on the meeting site today. All shareholders of record on March 3, 2023, are entitled to vote at the meeting, and I have been advised that a quorum for the conduct of business is present. Shareholders who wish to vote at this meeting may do so now or at any time until we declare the polls closed by clicking the vote link on the meeting website. Any shareholder who has already voted and does not wish to change their vote, need not take any further action. Questions may be submitted now by clicking on the Q&A dialogue box at the top of the screen. If you have submitted a question prior to the start of the annual meeting, there is no need to submit it again. Non-shareholder guests will not be permitted to submit questions. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. There are 4 items of business to be considered by the shareholders. The first item of business is the election of the 8 nominees named in the proxy statement to serve on the Board of Directors until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected and qualified. The second item is to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. This proposal is a nonbinding shareholder advisory vote. The third item of business is to approve the frequency of future advisory votes on the compensation of the company's named executive officers. This proposal is also a nonbinding shareholder advisory vote. The fourth and final item is a proposal to ratify the Audit Committee's appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023. The company recommends that shareholders vote for each of the director nominees named in the company's proxy statement, for proposals 2 and 4 and for every year on proposal 3. Voting will now be conducted on the 4 items of business presented. If you have already voted by proxy or by Internet or telephone, you do not need to vote at this meeting unless you want to change your vote. [Voting]

I now declare the polls closed and return the meeting to Jim.

Thank you, Brian. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Bob Lyons, who will provide an update on the company. Bob?

Good morning, and thank you for joining. In this, our 125th year of operation, I'm proud of what GATX has accomplished, and I'm grateful for the support of all of you, our shareholders. This morning, I'll provide some brief comments on the business, and then will return the meeting to the formality. Turning first to our largest business, Rail North America. The market environment has been solid and steady in 2022 and 20 -- and into 2023. We've had strong demand for existing railcars despite limited growth in rail traffic. Our customers are very keen to hold on to the cars they have in their fleets, although they're not looking to grow their railcar fleets materially. The new car market is a bit more challenging, but our commercial team is doing an outstanding job of placing cars delivered under our supply agreement. Most importantly, we continue to operate our maintenance network safely, efficiently and at record performance metrics. Our focus going forward will be to continue to capture improved rates over longer term, which walks in high-quality long-term cash flow for our shareholders. Maintenance is a competitive differentiator and an advantage, and we'll continue to invest in our maintenance network. And we'll allocate our capital wisely despite rising asset prices and rising interest rates, we continue to find good opportunities to put capital to work. Looking at Rail International. Our markets are very strong in both Europe and India, and the long-term fundamentals are very positive. Despite economic challenges in Europe, we are seeing excellent opportunity to put cars to work at attractive rates. And in India, demand is at record levels, supported by very strong GDP growth in that market. Our focus on the international side will be investing aggressively and capitalizing on these opportunities, always with a long-term focus. We're going to utilize the strong platforms we have in place that we've invested in over the years, and we'll continue to grow in these targeted international markets. On the aircraft engine leasing side, the business is very strong as air travel has started to finally recover post pandemic, led by domestic travel, but international, which is very important to our business and the engines that we own and lease is finally recovering while not at pre-pandemic levels yet, the trend line is positive. Additionally, airlines are -- continue to gravitate more towards leasing and doing so with their spare aircraft engines as well. That's a very positive development for GATX. As I mentioned at the onset, this is our 125th year of operation. And I'd also like to point out, it's our 25th year of partnering with Rolls-Royce. They have been an exemplary partner for GATX, and we'll continue to work with them closely as we grow our business through multiple channels. We can invest through our joint venture, Rolls-Royce Partners & Finance. We can acquire engines directly on our own through GATX engine leasing, and we'll also look at other means for continuing to grow this important business. At Trifleet, a business we acquired just a couple of years ago, the results have been positive and exceeded our initial expectations when we bought the business. It's an excellent team and a growing international market, and we feel very strong and very positive about the position we're in right now. Looking forward, we're going to grow and leverage the assets we have in place and try to take advantage of the opportunity to jointly market this business and its assets and expertise across our other business lines. I started out by thanking our shareholders, and I'll end by doing the same. Our very strong total shareholder return over the period shown on this slide could not have happened without the support of our shareholders, and I thank you very much. I'd also like to note that we remain intensely focused on continuing to earn your support by generating attractive risk-adjusted returns. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Bob. Brian, do you have the report of the inspector of election?

Yes, Jim, the inspector has tabulated the votes, and her preliminary report indicates the following: First, each of the director nominees in the company's proxy statement has been elected. Second, the nonbinding advisory resolution approving the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved. Third, shareholders have approved on a nonbinding basis every year as the frequency for future advisory votes on the compensation of the company's named executive officers. And finally, the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023 has been ratified. The final report of the inspection -- inspector of election will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Bob to respond to any questions we have received from shareholders.

We have received one question, and I would like to direct that to Jim Ream.

We have a question that came in as to whether or not the company and Ernst & Young adhere to the process of rotating out our lead auditor firm Ernst & Young every 5 years, and we are happy to report that the company and Ernst & Young, does adhere to that policy. We conduct that process jointly with Ernst & Young and the management folks. And of course, I'd like to remind everybody that our Audit Committee confirms who our auditors are working on our company every year.

Okay. We now turn the meeting back over to Jim for closing remarks.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our annual meeting. In closing, I'd like to thank our employees for their continued hard work and dedication and to our shareholders for their ongoing support. Thank you all for participating in our virtual annual meeting and for your interest in GATX.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.