MYR Group Inc. (MYRG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the 2020 MYR Group Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will now turn the call over to MYR's Chairman of the Board, Ken Hartwick.

Good morning. I'm Ken Hartwick, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MYR Group. It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome and express our appreciation to you for participating in our annual meeting of stockholders and for your support of MYR. Due to the public health impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we are holding our meeting virtually, utilizing this webcast. We strive to make the meeting as inclusive as possible by offering our shareholders the same opportunities to participate as provided at the in-person portion of our past meetings. In order to provide a fair, informative and orderly meeting, we have established rules of conduct for this meeting. The rules of conduct, along with the meeting agenda and technical support information for the meeting, can be found in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. We will conduct the meeting in accordance with these documents and your cooperation in observing the rules of conduct is greatly appreciated. During the meeting, stockholders will have the opportunity to submit questions related to the proposals in writing by typing the question into the ask-a-question field and then clicking submit. We will do our best to respond to appropriate questions related to the proposals in the time permitted during the Q&A portion of the meeting. I'm joined today by our Board of Directors including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Rick Swartz; as well as management from the company, including Betty Johnson, our Chief Financial Officer; Tod Cooper, Chief Operating Officer of T&D.; Jeff Waneka, Chief Operating Officer of C&I; and Will Fry, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Will Fry has also been appointed secretary for this meeting. Representatives from the company's independent auditor, Crowe, are also in attendance as well as our Inspector of Election. The meeting is now called to order. Resolutions were adopted at the February 27, 2020, meeting of the Board of Directors, providing for Annual Stockholders Meeting to be held and notice to be given. The Board fixed March 2, 2020, as the record date for determining persons entitled to notice or of and to vote at this meeting. The meeting notice was amended on April 1, 2020, to announce a change in the location of the meeting to a virtual meeting format through this webcast. A list of stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting is open to the examination of any stockholder on the portal being utilized for this meeting. Only holders of common stock on the record date are entitled to vote at this meeting. A copy of the notice of meeting, the amended notice, the affidavit as to the distribution of the notice of annual meeting of stockholders and the amended notice of annual meeting of stockholders will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. At the close of business on March 2, 2020, the record date, 16,657,072 shares of the company's common stock were outstanding. The inspector has determined that holders of not less than 15,085,280 shares of common stock or approximately 91% of the shares outstanding on the record date are represented at this meeting in person or by proxy. Therefore, a quorum is present. Therefore, as proper notice has been given and a quorum is present, this meeting has been properly convened. At this time, we will consider the items of business on the agenda. Proposal #1, the first matter to be considered at today's meeting, which is further described in the proxy statement is the election of 3 Class I directors to hold office for a 3-year term or until their respective successors are elected and qualified. No stockholder nominations were properly filed with the corporate secretary in advance of the meeting. Therefore, I declare the nominations for directors closed. Proposal #2, a vote on an advisory resolution to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. Proposal #3, approval of the MYR Group Inc's. 2017 long-term incentive plan amended and restated as of April 23, 2020; and Proposal #4, ratification on an advisory basis of the appointment of Crowe LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. These proposals are described in detail in the proxy and the Board recommends that stockholders vote for each of the nominees named in Proposal 1 and for Proposals 2, 3 and 4. The company's bylaws require that a stockholder provide advanced written notice to the company of a stockholder's intention to bring a matter before the annual meeting. Since no stockholder notices were properly filed with the corporate secretary in advance of the meeting, there will be no other business considered at this meeting. It is 10:06 Mountain Time, and the polls are now open. You may vote on the web portal at this time. Let me remind you that if you have already voted, there is no need for you to vote on the web portal unless you wish to change your vote. I will pause for 1 minute to see if any voting occurs. [Voting]

Now that everyone has had an opportunity to vote, I declare the polls are closed, and it is 12:08 Mountain Time. The inspector has informed us that based on the preliminary vote report, each of the nominees named in Proposal 1 has been elected, and Proposals 2, 3 and 4 have passed. The inspector of election will execute a report on the results of the voting that will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. Seeing that there is no further official business, the meeting is adjourned. The final vote results will be included in a Form 8-K that we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can go to our website at www.myrgroup.com to access this filing and all other SEC filings. This past year accomplishments are the accumulation of the efforts of a talented, hard-working group and I take great pride in being part of this team. I'd like to close by extending a thank you to each of you and every customer for allowing us to serve you, to our stockholders for your support and to MY Group employees everywhere for your hard work, ingenuity and passion to continue to serve our customers and our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. I would now like to say a few words about the company's accomplishments and financial performance in 2019. While expanding our service offerings and geographic reach, we've maintained our commitment to operational excellence, ensuring that MYR Group continues to be recognized as a leading company in the industry. We acquired CSI Electrical Contractors, which add significant capacity to our commercial and industrial service offerings in California, expands our expertise to new and existing customers and continues to support efforts to enhance our expertise in the clean energy market. In addition to organic and acquisition growth initiatives, we focused on key operational objectives to streamline our business operations, strengthen our competitive position and provide a safe and positive work environments as well as opportunities for our employees. Turning to our financial performance. We will not report our first quarter 2020 financial results until after the close of market on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Disclosure rules preclude me from discussing our first quarter 2020 financial results. Our 2019 revenue of $2.07 billion was a record high for the fifth consecutive year as gross profits, earnings per share, net income and EBITDA increased as compared to our full year 2018 results. Our record backlog of $1.5 billion at the end of 2019, is a result of our expanded services across a wide footprint and our efforts to continually improve customer value. We are proud of our 2019 full year performance, which we expect to serve as a solid foundation for future growth opportunities and continued stockholder value. As you know, we are all in an unprecedented time of great uncertainty, regarding the magnitude and duration of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the country, MYR's project teams remain focused on excellence in project execution and contract management. We will continue to monitor and adjust our cost structure to ensure we remain one of the lowest cost, highest value providers in the industry while maintaining the highest levels of commitment to safety. Our strong management, experienced operational teams, industry-leading safety performance and financial strength provide us the foundation to navigate these uncharted waters, while we continue to grow our business in the years ahead. As we move forward, we will focus on profitable growth in our developed markets, while exploring future organic growth opportunities and strategic acquisitions. We will continue to invest in developing our people skills, along with other key capabilities we need to compete in the future. Most importantly, we remain totally committed to delivering outstanding service to our customers and continued stockholder value. I would again like to express my sincere appreciation to the stockholders who participated in today's meeting as well as those who submitted their proxies but were not able to join. Thank you.