Hubbell Incorporated (HUBB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders for Hubbell Incorporated. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to introduce Dave Nord, the Executive Chairman of Hubbell Incorporated.

Good morning. In accordance with the notice of meeting, I'm pleased to call to order the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Hubbell Incorporated. I'm Dave Nord, the Executive Chairman of Hubbell, and I will be presiding over today's meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors and management, I'd like to welcome you to this morning's meeting. At this time, I'm joined at this virtual meeting by Gerben Bakker, Hubbell's President and Chief Executive Officer and also a Director; Bill Sperry, Hubbell's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Katie Lane, Hubbell's Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Also joining us at this virtual meeting are each of the nominees for director of the company; Gerben Bakker, Carlos Cardoso, Anthony Guzzi, Rhett Hernandez, Neal Keating, Bonnie Lind, John Malloy, Jennifer Pollino, John Russell and Steven Shawley. Also virtually with us today are Marco Carducci, partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Gary Wozniak, a representative from Broadridge Financial Services; and Nicole Najam, Hubbell's Chief Employment Counsel. Mr. Wozniak and Ms. Najam will act as the inspectors of election for this meeting. Thanks for everyone for joining us virtually again this year. So we believe the country and most parts of the world are in a better place regarding COVID-19 than we were at this time last year. For the safety of our shareholders, employees and community, we felt it was safest to hold our annual shareholders meeting virtually. We hope that each of you and your families are continuing to stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to being in a post-pandemic era soon. I hope that many of you were able to listen to our first quarter earnings call that was held last Tuesday. A recorded version of that call is available on our website, hubbell.com. I recommend that each of you listen to it and review our related earnings slides, press release and Form 10-Q that we filed for additional information on Hubbell. This will be the last time I preside over Hubbell's Annual Meeting of Shareholders as I'm retiring from the Board and Hubbell. I wanted to thank the many shareholders that I've met, spoken to or worked with over the years. Whether it was on investor calls and meetings or in person at shareholder meetings, I've always appreciated the perspectives and insights received from Hubbell's shareholders, and thank you all for your continued support of Hubbell. In addition to Hubbell shareholders, I also want to thank Hubbell's employees for all their work throughout this pandemic and during my entire tenure at Hubbell. Hubbell is a great company. It is because of you. And though I am retiring from the Board in Hubbell, I will continue to believe in Hubbell's people, products and brands and will follow it closely. We'll now proceed with the formal portion of the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which Katie will take us through. Katie?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A copy of the rules of conduct, along with the meeting agenda are available on the meeting site. These rules govern the conduct of our meeting today. Please note that during this meeting, comments may be made that contain forward-looking statements, which, by their nature, address matters that are in the future and are uncertain. Actual future financial results may be materially different, and we recommend that you review the risks and uncertainties described in our filings with the SEC, including our recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K. We welcome questions from our shareholders. However, questions must be confined only to the items on the agenda and raised after all the proposals are presented. I have the affidavit from Broadridge showing that due notice of this meeting was given. A copy of the notice and affidavit will be attached to the minutes of this meeting. All shareholders of record at the close of business on March 5, 2021, are entitled to vote at the annual meeting. Our first order of business is to determine whether the shares represented at this meeting constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. We've been informed by Broadridge that proxies have been received from shareholders, representing approximately 93% of the total votes eligible to be cast at this meeting. Since the majority of the shares entitled to vote at this meeting are present in person or by proxy, a quorum is hereby declared present. There are 3 proposals to be voted upon at this meeting as described in the notice of meeting and in the proxy statement. The first proposal is the election of directors of the company to serve until the 2022 Annual Meeting and the election of their successors. The second proposal is the approval by nonbinding vote of the compensation of our named executive officers as presented in the 2021 proxy statement. The third proposal is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2021. Now that all 3 proposals have been presented, we will confirm if any questions related to the proposals have been submitted. We have received 2 questions that are not related to the proposals. We will address both of these questions in the Q&A section at the end of the formal meeting. We will now proceed to vote on these 3 proposals. If there are any shareholders who wish to vote at this meeting, you should do so now. The meeting host will now open the voting. If you have already voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. Please note that you will not be able to vote your shares at this virtual meeting if you did not submit a copy of the legal proxy from your bank or broker during registration. [Voting]

I now declare the polls closed, and I direct the meeting host to close the voting. The inspectors have presented their initial vote report to me. Mr. Chairman, the initial results of the voting are as follows, with the final tabulation to be filed on a Form 8-K within 4 business days of this meeting. First, each of the 10 Board nominees has been duly elected to the Board, having received an average of over 90% of the votes cast. Second, the proposal to approve by nonbinding vote, the compensation of our named executive officers as presented in the 2021 proxy statement has received over 97% of the votes cast. Third, the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 has been ratified, having received over 96% of the votes cast.

Thank you, Katie. I now hereby adjourn the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Hubbell Incorporated.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this point, we welcome any questions or comments from our shareholders attending this virtual meeting, and I will read the 2 that we have received so far. First one coming from Jim Moore of the carpenter's pension fund. Mr. Chairman, would you or the Chair of the Compensation Committee speak to whether Hubbell might be better served by an executive compensation plan tailored specifically to the company's particular circumstances and its unique long-term strategic business plan?

Okay. I'll take that. Thank you, Jim. Certainly, we are very keen in making sure that our executive compensation plans are aligned, and I could speak on behalf of the Chair of the Compensation Committee. But a lot of time is spent on ensuring understanding what the company's strategic -- long-term strategic plan is and ensuring that our compensation plans are aligned to that. We evaluate the performance against that and are paid for performance. We utilized independent compensation advisers to assist in that, to do that independent analysis. And so we appreciate that question and believe that we are very responsive to that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The second question also is from Jim Moore of the carpenter's union. Mr. Chairman, could you discuss the Board's perspective on the concept of stakeholder capitalism. And what principles the Board would use to balance the interest of various stakeholders as it develops and implements the company's long-term business strategy.

Okay. Thanks, Jim. That's a very timely topic and question in this environment. Certainly, as a public company, our first and foremost responsibility is to our shareholders. But we have always contemplated the broader stakeholder group, including our employees and our communities, and we're keenly interested in all of the related topics, while still making sure that we are focused on the shareholders' interest because those are truly the owners of our company.

Mr. Chairman, there are no additional questions.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Thank you all for attending. Again, I appreciate, and I look forward to following the bright future of Hubbell going forward. Thank you for joining today.

This concludes Hubbell Incorporated's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Thank you to all the shareholders for attending today's meeting. Enjoy the rest of your day.