MasTec, Inc. (MTZ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of MasTec is now called to order. I am Jorge Mas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MasTec, and I cordially welcome you to today's meeting. We and MasTec are aware of the times in which we are living and the need to protect the health of our directors, executives, employees, shareholders and the other people who help us conduct our annual meeting. While we would prefer to be in a position to conduct our annual meeting in person, as we traditionally have in the past, we are very pleased that our shareholders can participate in our virtual annual meeting. [Operator Instructions] We very much look forward to returning to an in-person format for our 2022 annual meeting. I would like now to take a moment to introduce the other directors of the company who are present both physically and virtually. Jose Mas, who is our Chief Executive Officer; Bob Campbell; Ernie Csiszar; Bob Dwyer; Julia Johnson; and Javier Palomarez. In addition to Jose, I would like to introduce the other executive officers of the company who are present with me here today. Bob Apple, our Chief Operating Officer; George Pita, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Albert de Cardenas, our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. On behalf of all of our shareholders, I would like to thank the directors and the management team for their contributions to MasTec, particularly in the environment in which we are currently operating. Also with us today are representatives from our independent registered public accounting firm, BDO USA, and they are available to answer questions from shareholders after we complete the business portion of the meeting. This meeting is convened pursuant to the notice dated April 7, 2021, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 15, 2021. Albert de Cardenas, inspector of elections, will now give his report. Albert?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have an affidavit of a manager of Broadridge Financial Solutions that a notice of Internet availability of proxy materials was sent on or about April 7, 2021, to each shareholder of record as of March 15, 2021. We have available at this meeting, a certified list of these shareholders, which is available for inspection by any shareholder of record at the annual meeting website. As of close of business on the record date, there were 74,169,528 shares of common stock outstanding and I have determined that a quorum is present for all matters to be voted on at the meeting.

Thank you, Albert. We have 4 matters to be voted on today which are: one, the election of Jose Mas and Javier Palomarez as Class II directors to serve until the 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders; two, the ratification of the appointment of BDO USA as our independent registered public accounting firm for the 2021 fiscal year; three, the approval of a nonbinding advisory resolution regarding the compensation of our named executive officers, which we refer to as a say-on-pay resolution; and four, the approval of the MasTec amended and restated 2013 incentive compensation plan. Those shareholders who wish to vote during the meeting may vote using the annual meeting website and following the instructions found there. As instructed in the proxy statement, our Board of Directors has recommended that our shareholders vote for each of the nominees for director; for the ratification of the appointment of BDO for the 2021 fiscal year; for the say-on-pay resolution; and for the MasTec amended and restated 2013 incentive compensation plan. As there are no nominations for other candidates properly before the meeting, the nominations are hereby declared closed. There being no other proposals properly before the meeting, the polls are now open regarding each of the 4 proposals properly brought before the meeting and described in our proxy statement. Is there -- were there any interest in anyone participating, whether or not you already submitted a proxy, who now wants to vote using the online meeting website? If yes, please proceed to submit your votes pursuant to the online meeting website. [Voting]

If there's anyone still trying to submit votes, please say so using the field provided for in questions on the web portal. [Voting]

Seeing there's no one, the polls are now closed. Albert?

As inspector of elections, I report that our shareholders have voted to elect Jose R. Mas and Javier Palomarez to serve as Class II directors for a 3-year term; to ratify the appointment of BDO USA LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the 2021 fiscal year; to approve on a nonbinding advisory basis the compensation paid to our named executive officers; and finally, to approve the MasTec Inc. amended and restated 2013 incentive compensation plan.

Thank you, Albert. Now that the business portion of the meeting has been concluded, and there being no more business to attend to before the meeting, I declare the meeting adjourned. I would now -- I'll make some brief remarks, and then I'll turn the meeting over to Jose Mas, our Chief Executive Officer, for further comments. Shareholders will then have an opportunity using the annual meeting website to ask questions directed to management or the company's auditors. On behalf of myself, Jose, the management of MasTec, I want to, number one, thank all of the shareholders for your support in this year to say that this past year has been difficult is an understatement. I know that it's been a very difficult environment personally for many. And one of the things that I'm proud is of over this past year with MasTec is that we took a team member and employee attitude first to make sure that all of our team members are taken care of, that safety and health protocols are being followed and also being very, very proud of the extreme work we did as we were an essential service during the pandemic. And I am very happy with where MasTec is positioned today and what we've delivered. As a management team here, we remain committed to giving people a great environment to work to continue striving to be the best at what we do. But again, today is just a day to say thank you for all of your work and efforts and look forward to a wonderful 2021. With that being said, I'd like to turn the call over to Jose.

So good morning. Just to reiterate, really appreciate everybody's support in what was a very difficult 2020. The safety of our employees and the health of our employees was our main priority, and I think that we weathered it relatively well. We did have some people that got sick. We unfortunately had some people that did pass. But overall, I think we did a great job of making sure that the safety of our employees was paramount and top of mind. With that said, with all of the challenges that we faced in 2020, I think the market significantly changed. And I think we positioned ourselves for what we think is going to be a very successful future. So when you look at the challenges that the pandemic created, both in the connectivity of people and the ability of people to connect both to their home Internet, their business Internet, their home cellular service or their mobile cellular service, we play a huge role in being able to connect people. And we think as the business community changes and the demands of the business community changes over time, we're in a great position to help our customers deliver the best products. You couple on that the changes with our energy generation and what's going to happen in the energy markets in the United States with the advent of things like electric vehicles and others, we're in a great position to really participate in what we think is going to be a transformative time in our country both from the generation of power, from renewables to other sources of power generation to the transmission grid, to the distribution grid. We think we're in an incredible place. So while we've had to weather a tough storm, we think we couldn't have done a better job of positioning the company for long-term success. We're probably sitting on more opportunities today than we've ever faced as a company. And with that, our job becomes all about execution and our delivery to execute on the opportunities that are in front of us, and take advantage of them as best as we can. Again, just to thank everybody that's on the call today. I know we have our auditors on the call. We've got a lot of management on the call. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed in 2020. Again, it was a difficult year, and I think we did a remarkable job of coming together and really performing and succeeding on behalf of all of the constituents of MasTec, all of our team members, all of our shareholders. We're blessed to be in the position that we are today. And we look forward to what 2021 holds for us and, more importantly, the longer-term future. So again, thank you for being here. We'd like to now open the floor for any questions that you may have. [Operator Instructions] And then please give us a few minutes so that we can figure this out. Okay. There being currently no questions submitted, I'd like to again thank each of you for attending today's meeting and especially for your support for MasTec. I hope each of you and your families remain safe and well, and God bless you.