Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, Inc. (PRSU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Viad Corp Annual Meeting. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Rich Dozer. Sir, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Viad Corp's 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders and our first virtual shareholder meeting. I am Rich Dozer, Chairman of Viad's Board of Directors, and I will serve as the Chairman of this meeting. I want to start by saying that I hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy as we address this global health crisis together. At Viad, we are following the advice of our government and health experts. The company is adhering to physical distancing orders across the organization, and we are making every decision with a focus on what's best for our team, our clients and guests and our shareholders. You can see the agenda for today's meeting posted on your screen. Please review the posted rules of conduct for this meeting and how you may submit your questions. Please include your name and whether you are a registered shareholder or if you hold your shares through a bank, broker or other institution. Please submit your questions now or any time during the meeting through the online portal. We have allowed up to 15 minutes of time for your questions at the end of the meeting. I now call the meeting of the shareholders to order. Joining me to conduct the meeting today is Derek Linde, Viad's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. I would also like to introduce our director nominees and current directors who are joining us online today. First, Andrew Benett lives in New Canaan, Connecticut. Andrew is the Executive Chair and CEO of Harte Hanks, a marketing services company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He was elected to our Board in 2013 and serves as Chairman of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and is a member of the Human Resources Committee. Denise Coll lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She was formerly President of North America division of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. She was elected to our Board in 2018 and serves as a member of our Human Resources and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Ginnie Henkels lives here in Phoenix metropolitan area. Ginnie is the former Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Swift Transportation Company. She was elected to our Board in 2017. Ginnie serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee and is a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Steve Moster lives here in Phoenix. Steve is also our President and CEO and recently assumed the role of President of GES. Prior to being elected as our President and CEO, he served in various executive management roles with the company. He was elected to our Board in 2014. Ed Mace lives in Denver, Colorado. Ed is the President and CEO of Silverwest Hotels, a company that manages and operates entities designed to acquire, develop and reposition U.S. hotels and resorts. He was elected to our Board in 2012. He is Chairman of the Human Resources Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. Bob Munzenrider is also an Arizona resident. Bob is retired President of Harmon AutoGlass, a national chain which provides retail automotive services and insurance claims processing. He has served on our Board since 2004. Bob is the past Chairman and member of the Audit Committee and is also a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Bob is retiring from our Board after 16 years of dedicated service. Bob's contributions to the Board and Viad have been invaluable. He will serve as Director Emeritus until our next Annual Meeting of the Shareholders on May 18, 2021. On a personal note, I want to thank Bob for his loyalty and dedication to Viad and his wise counsel, leadership and friendship throughout his service on the Board. We, and I in particular, will miss you on the Board, Bob. So Bob, on behalf of Viad, the shareholders and your fellow Board members, I want to bid you a fine farewell. We thank you, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Josh Schechter of Los Angeles, California. Josh is the Chairman of support.com, a provider of cloud-based software and services for technology support. He was appointed to our Board in 2015 and is a member of the Corporate Governance, Nominating and Audit Committees. Again, I'm Rich Dozer. I live here in Phoenix. I have served as the Chairman of the Board since 2014. I was the past President of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball franchise, President of the U.S. Airways Center and Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Phoenix Suns basketball franchise. I'm a member of the Board's Human Resources and Audit Committees. In addition to Steve and Derek, I would like to recognize the remaining members of the senior leadership team: David Barry, President of Pursuit; and Ellen Ingersoll, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining online today is John Sizer from Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm. John is a lead partner for Viad. We'll now move to the formal business of the meeting. Derek Linde, the Corporate Secretary, will submit an affidavit as to the mailing of the notice of this meeting, which I direct to be filed with the records of this meeting. Derek?

I submit the affidavit of distribution that affirms that beginning on April 3, 2020, shareholders of record either received electronically or by mail notification that the form of proxy, notice of this meeting, proxy statement and annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, were available by Internet or could be obtained by request. The affidavit with exhibits will be filed with the meeting records. Additionally, I have a record of all Viad shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting as of the close of business on March 20, 2020. We have made the shareholder registration list available to you during this meeting by posting it on the website.

Thanks, Derek. The Board has appointed Andrew Wilcox of Broadridge Financial Services (sic) [ Solutions ] as inspector of elections for this meeting, and he is joining us online today. Mr. Wilcox has previously taken an oath of office, which is part of the records of this meeting. The Corporate Secretary will now report on the presence of a quorum.

The holders of more than 91% of Viad Corp's outstanding stocks, who are entitled to vote at this meeting, are present in person or represented by proxy. Accordingly, a quorum is present, and the meeting may proceed.

The Board approved the following 3 proposals for your consideration at today's meeting. First is the election of Ed Mace and Josh Schechter to the Board of Directors, each for a 3-year term to expire in 2023. Next is ratification of the selection of Deloitte Touche as Viad's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. And the final matter is the advisory approval of 2019 compensation of our named executive officers. The polls are now open for voting on the 3 proposals. If you previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote again. However, if you would like to vote or if you would like to change your vote, you may vote now by clicking on the button on the website that says Vote Here. [Voting]

I will now ask the inspector of elections, Mr. Andrew Wilcox, to report the results of voting that were tabulated prior to this meeting. Mr. Wilcox?

Mr. Chairman, please be advised that in connection with the election of directors, each nominee received a substantial majority of votes cast in favor of election. In addition, the substantial majority of shareholders voted for the ratification of the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 and in favor of the advisory vote on executive compensation.

Based on the voting report of the inspector of elections, the nominees for director have been elected. The selection of Deloitte Touche is ratified, and the executive compensation is approved. The company will report the final vote results on Form 8-K, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of this meeting. We have finished the formal part of the meeting, and we will now take your questions. If you have not done so, please submit your questions through the online portal and remember to include your name and whether you are a registered shareholder or whether you hold your Viad shares through a bank, broker or other institution.

All right. So our first question is to comment on Viad's current stock price. And what -- how I would respond is that, clearly, both of our businesses, both in the hospitality and the face-to-face industry have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. And during our earnings call last week, we indicated that we would see minimal revenue in the second quarter due to the closure of many of our facilities as well as a lot of postponement or cancellation of events in the second quarter. And obviously, that has had a negative impact on the overall stock price where we sit today. However, as we also mentioned on the call, we believe strongly in the value of the businesses. And we believe in the long-term value of the iconic locations where we have assets as well as the value of face-to-face meetings. The second question coming in is around our ability to help clients operate virtual trade shows. Our response is that, yes, over the last several years, we have acquired a couple of audiovisual services company, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States, to provide clients with audiovisual needs. During COVID-19, we have been able to work with some of our clients, who decided to cancel their face-to-face or physical meeting and move more to a virtual meeting or virtual trade show. And so we have been able to help those clients through this difficult time by producing virtual trade shows for them. So we believe that it's been helpful to our clients and helpful to the business in order to do that. However, we believe that virtual events will only complement a physical face-to-face meeting in the future. The next question is whether or not shareholders will be able to have a conversation in a traditional manner or if we are utilizing kind of an e-mail protocol to answer questions. And during this call, we will be only taking e-mail questions to the Board and to the management team. And so if there are questions that you'd like to ask, happy to have you type those in. Additionally, you can contact the management team through our IR e-mail address, which is [email protected]. Let me see if there's any other questions coming in. At this time, there are no other questions that I show in the queue.

We'll wait for another minute or so. And there's nothing else. All right. There are no other questions coming in. So thank you for your questions, for attending the annual meeting and for your continuing support. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.