MeiraGTx Holdings plc (MGTX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to MeiraGTx Holdings plc 2021 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Keith Harris, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MeiraGTx. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning. I'm Keith Harris, the Chairman of the Board of MeiraGTx Holdings plc and the Chairperson of today's meeting. I'm very happy to welcome you to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We appreciate your joining us today through the virtual platform, which we have elected to use for this year's annual meeting to ensure the safety of our shareholders, our directors and our employees. Before I call the meeting to order, I would like to introduce you to the other members of my Board and the officers and guests of the company who are with us today. The other members of the Board here today are Alexandria Forbes, our Chief Executive Officer; Martin Indyk, Arnie Levine, Joel Marcus, Nicole Seligman and Tom Shenk. And also here today are the following executive officers of our company; Rich Giroux, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer; and Robert Wollin, our General Counsel and Secretary. I would also like to introduce Jerry Ward, Partner of Ernst & Young LLP, the company's independent auditor. The meeting will now officially come to order. You should all see on the virtual shareholder meeting website, the agenda for the meeting. These are the formal items of business we will be covering today as set forth in the notice of Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and proxy statement. At the bottom of the share, the virtual shareholder meeting website under the heading Meeting Materials is a list of the rules of conduct for the meeting. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask the participants abide by these rules. During the meeting, only validated shareholders may ask questions in the designated field on the virtual shareholder meeting website. We ask that shareholder limit their questions during the formal portion of the meeting to those concerning the proposals to be considered by shareholders at today's meeting. We have reserved time for general questions after the formal portion of the meeting has concluded. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question during each Q&A session. Our Board of Directors set April 13, 2021, as the record date for those shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. We have a certified list of shareholders of the company as of the close of business on the record date who are entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. The list was available for inspection for 10 days prior to this meeting and is available under the heading meeting materials on the virtual shareholder meeting website. I also have an affidavit of mailing establishing that notice of this meeting, is first distributed or made available on April 28, 2021, to all shareholders of record of the company as of the close of business on April 13, 2021. A copy of the notice of meeting and the affidavit of mailing will be included with the minutes of this meeting. At this time, I'd like to introduce Tracy Oats, a representative of Broadridge Investor Communications Services. The Board of Directors has appointed a representative of Broadridge to act as inspector of election at today's meeting. Ms. Oats has signed the customary oath of office to execute her duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. Ms. Oats has informed me that a quorum is present. Therefore, I hereby declare this meeting to be duly constituted with the transaction of business. And we will now proceed with the formal business of this meeting. There are 2 proposals to be considered by the shareholders at this meeting. Each proposal is to be determined by poll. The Board of Directors recommends that the shareholders vote for each of the proposals. Please note that we will give shareholders an opportunity to comment on the proposals themselves after all proposals have been presented. Voting will commence after all proposals have been presented. The first item of business is the election of each of Alexandria Forbes, Lord Mendoza and myself, Keith Harris, to serve as a Class III Director of the company to hold office until the company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held in 2024, and until his or her respective successor has been duly elected and qualified. The plurality of the votes cast meaning that the 3 nominees receiving the highest number of affirmative 4 votes is the voting standard for this item of business and is required for each of the nominees to be elected as Class III directors. The second item of business is the ratification by ordinary resolution of the Audit Committee's appointment of the Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2021. The affirmative vote of the holders of a simple majority of our ordinary shares present in person or by proxy and voting at this annual meeting is required for the approval of this proposal. This is a nonbinding vote on the company. That was the final proposal for today's meeting. If you have a question on any of our proposals, please submit it now in a designated field on the virtual shareholder meeting website. We will pause for a moment to see if there are any such questions. Rob, are there any questions on the proposals?

No, Keith, there are no questions.

Thank you. Well, since there are no questions, I will now turn to opening the polls for voting. The time is now 10:08 a.m. on June 10, 2021, and the polls are now open for voting on all matters before the meeting. Any shareholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the virtual shareholder meeting website and following the instructions. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote, do not need to take any further action. We will pause for a moment to allow shareholders to vote. [Voting]

The time is now 10:09 a.m. on June 10, 2021, and the polls are now closed for voting. Based on the preliminary report of the inspector of election, Alexandria Forbes, Lord Mendoza and myself, Keith Harris, have been elected as Class 3 directors by a plurality of the votes cast to serve until our annual meeting to be held in 2024, and until his or her respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. And secondly, the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2021, has been ratified by ordinary resolution. The final tally of the votes will be published within 4 business days in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is now 10:10 a.m. and the formal portion of the meeting has concluded. This meeting is adjourned. Now we would like to open things up for shareholder questions and comments. [Operator Instructions] Please note that only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed. We will pause for a moment to see if there are any questions. Rob, do we have any questions?

Keith, we do not have any questions.

Thank you. Since there are no questions, we would like to thank you for attending today's meeting, which is now at a close.

This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for attending, and have a pleasant day.

Thank you.