Ingevity Corporation (NGVT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Ingevity Corporation's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to introduce Jean Blackwell, Chair of Ingevity Corporation.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Jean Blackwell, Chair of Ingevity Corporation, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Joining me today are John Fortson, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Stacy Cozad, General Counsel and Secretary. I would also like to recognize the other members of our Board of Directors and our leadership team who are present today. Our other Board members are Diane Gulyas, Luis Fernandez-Moreno, Fred Lynch, Mike Fitzpatrick, Karen Narwold and Dan Sansone. Our other leadership team members are Mary Dean Hall, Chief Financial Officer; Ed Woodcock, President, Performance Materials; Mike Smith, President, Performance Chemicals; Jack Maurer, Public Affairs; and Erik Ripple, growth and Innovation. Other attendees present today are [ Natalie Prosky ] and Dina Eggleston from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, our independent auditor; and Beth VanDerbeck, our inspector of elections. I want to thank all registered stockholders and guests who have joined the virtual meeting. You have access to view our agenda and the rules of conduct under the Materials tab of the virtual platform. After we complete the formal business of the meeting, we will allow an opportunity for stockholders to ask questions about the company's business by using the virtual meeting question feature. Our administrators for the questions and comments received during the meeting are Jack Maurer; and Ryan Fisher, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. Our administrators will review any questions or comments for appropriateness before directing them to be addressed. At this time, I'll turn it over to Stacy to report on the matters for this meeting.

Thank you, Jean. This meeting is held pursuant to notice and access delivery, which commenced distribution on March 8, 2021, to each stockholder of record as of February 22, 2021, and entitled to vote and attend this meeting. The list of stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting has been available at the registered office of the company for more than 10 days prior to this meeting and is also available for examination during the meeting. All documents concerning the call and notice of the meeting will be filed with the records of the meeting. I can confirm that the count of shares immediately prior to the commencement of the meeting indicated that out of 42,934,785 shares outstanding on our record date, a quorum is present in person or by proxy today. For those of you who have not submitted a proxy or intend to change your vote, you may do so online when the polls have been opened for voting. Ingevity is asking its stockholders to consider and vote upon 3 proposals at this meeting. Information about each of the proposals has been provided in the company's proxy statement. Proposal #1 is the election of the 8 director nominees to serve for a 1-year term through the 2022 Annual Meeting. Proposal #2 is the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. And proposal #3 is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of certain executive officers of Ingevity. The Board recommends that our stockholders vote for each of the 3 proposals. At this time, I declare that the polls are open for voting. Those stockholders who wish to vote should follow the instructions to submit your vote online. We will allow a moment for online ballots to be submitted and for our inspector of election to review the votes to be counted. [Voting]

I declare that the polls are now closed for voting, and the ballots have been provisionally counted. On proposal #1, the number of votes cast in favor of each of the 8 director nominees exceeds the number of votes cast against each of the nominees. On proposal #2, the number of votes cast in favor of the proposal exceeds the number of votes cast against the proposal for the ratification of appointment of the independent registered accountant. On proposal #3, the number of votes cast in favor of the proposal exceeds the number of votes cast against the proposal on compensation for certain executive officers. Based on these results, the 8 nominees for our Board of Directors as named in our proxy statement have been duly elected. And proposals #2 and #3 are hereby approved. The final results with exact number of votes present and cast for, against or abstaining for each proposal will be reported in the company's Form 8-K filed with the SEC within 4 business days of this annual meeting.

Thank you, Stacy. This concludes the official business portion of our meeting, and the annual meeting is officially adjourned. We will now open the meeting to any general questions or comments related to the company's business. Stockholders wishing to address the meeting should submit their questions via the virtual meeting platform. While questions are being submitted, I welcome a few... [Audio Gap]

Thank you, Jean. I'd like to start by acknowledging the remarkable ways our team adjusted last year. 2020 was a challenging year by many measures. Yet, in many ways, these challenges have made us a better, stronger company. I am personally so very proud of how our employees, particularly our manufacturing teams, adjusted to difficult circumstances, adapted to working conditions aimed at ensuring health and safety and got the job done. Our accomplishments as a company in 2020 are due in no small measure to their efforts. We thank them. In 2020, we made great strides in implementing a new strategy we call Ingevity 2.0. Our objective is to grow our company's revenues and size by placing greater emphasis on sustainability, innovation and customer centricity. Our products are inherently sustainable due to their raw materials and in many cases, their applications. We are currently certifying the sustainability of our products to better capture their value in a global economy that is more and more passionate about saving our planet. With renewed emphasis on innovation, we're looking at ways to diversify our products and end markets to include methane capture, health care applications for activated carbon, alternate feedstocks and markets for our chemicals business and entry into the biofuels market. Ingevity, 2.0 is right in our sweet spot, purifying, protecting and enhancing the world around us. We believe that given the attractiveness of our markets, the soundness of our strategy and the strength of our people, our future remains bright. Administrators, have we received any questions or comments related to the business?

No, we have not received any questions or comments related to the business.

The questions and comments...

Sorry. The questions and comments period related to the company is now closed. If you have additional questions or comments, you may send them at any time to Ingevity's Investor Relations team. The e-mail address is [email protected]. On behalf of myself and all of our directors, I would like to again express appreciation to the stockholders who attended the virtual meeting as well as those who submitted their proxies. Thank you and be safe.

The 2021 Ingevity Corporation Annual Meeting of Stockholders has now come to an end. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.