Scholar Rock Holding Corporation (SRRK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your Scholar Rock Holding Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to David Hallal. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. My name is David Hallal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Scholar Rock Holding Corporation. I will also serve as Chair of this meeting. The meeting is now called to order. I have asked Junlin Ho, Secretary of the corporation, to record the minutes. It is a pleasure to welcome our shareholders and guests to this virtual Annual Meeting of Scholar Rock Holding Corporation. This meeting is being held in accordance with the corporation's bylaws and Delaware law. Our meeting today will consist of 2 phases. First, we will take care of the formal business at hand, which is described in our notice and proxy statement, a copy of which was mailed on or about May 6, 2020, to all of our stockholders of record at the close of business on March 30, 2020. During this portion of the meeting, all discussion will be limited to the official business at hand. Subsequently, we will answer general questions at the end of the meeting. Before proceeding to the formal business, I would like to introduce the directors and members of management of the corporation who have joined us today. Our directors who are present include: myself, David Hallal, Chairman; Jeffrey Flier; Michael Gilman; Tony Kingsley; Nagesh Mahanthappa; Ted Myles; Amir Nashat; and Akshay Vaishnaw. Members of management who are present include: Nagesh Mahanthappa, President and Chief Executive Officer; Yung Chyung, Chief Medical Officer; Erin Moore, Principal Accounting Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance; Junlin Ho, Senior Vice President, Head of Legal and Corporate Secretary; and Catherine Hu, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Our independent auditor, the firm of Ernst & Young, is represented at this meeting by Patrick Good, our outside counsel. The firm of Goodwin Procter is represented by Laurie Burlingame. Now let's proceed to the formal business of the meeting, notice of which was sent to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 30, 2020. Shareholders of record on that date are entitled to vote at this meeting. We have, at this meeting on the virtual platform, a record of stockholders as of that date. A duplicate record has been on file with the Secretary of the corporation for the last 10 days immediately prior to the date of this meeting and has been available for inspection by any stockholder during that period at any time during normal business. As each of you entered the virtual meeting web portal this morning, you were given access to an agenda and rules of conduct for the meeting. It is our intention to conduct this meeting in accordance with these documents. There will be an opportunity for questions about each of the proposals after they are presented. [Operator Instructions] Please adhere to the rules of conduct in addressing this meeting. The Board of Directors has appointed Junlin Ho to act as inspector of elections for this annual meeting, and she will tabulate results of the voting. The inspector of elections has signed the oath of her office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Junlin, do we have a quorum present?

David, of the 29,808,174 shares of common stock entitled to vote at the meeting, 21,647,407 shares are represented, either through virtual presence or by proxy, and therefore, we have quorum.

Thank you. I declare that a quorum is present. We may now proceed to transact the business for which this meeting has been called. Let me briefly describe the voting procedures. We will vote by proxy and by virtual ballot. If you have previously turned in your proxy and you do not intend to change your vote, it is not necessary that you complete another proxy or virtual ballot. Your vote will be counted. If you are eligible to vote and have not submitted your proxy or if you want to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the Vote Here on the virtual platform. It is now 9:09 a.m. on May 29, 2020, and the polls for each matter to be voted on at this annual meeting are now open. Our first item of business is the election of directors. At this meeting, we will be voting on 3 nominees for Class II directors to serve for a 3-year term ending at the 2023 Annual Meeting, all as set forth in the proxy statement. Based on the recommendation of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board, our Board has nominated: myself, David Hallal; Kristina Burow; and Michael Gilman for election as directors to serve for a 3-year term ending at the 2023 Annual Meeting or until successors are elected and qualified. Each of the nominees is a current member of our Board and has consented to serve, if elected. For Proposal 1, the election of directors, the 3 nominees receiving the plurality of votes entitled to vote and cast will be elected as directors. The corporation's bylaws require that a stockholder provide advanced notice to the corporation of a stockholder's intent to nominate persons as directors. There are no other nominees. Accordingly, I declare the nominations for directors closed. The Board of Directors unanimously recommends that stockholders vote in favor of this proposal. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as the corporation's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. We've appointed Ernst & Young as our independent registered public accounting firm to perform the audit of our consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, and we are asking the stockholders to ratify this appointment. Ernst & Young has served as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. The Audit Committee annually reviews the independent registered public accounting firm's independence, including reviewing all relationships between the independent registered public accounting firm and us and any disclosures that may impact the objectivity and independence of the independent registered public accounting firm and the independent registered public accounting firm's performance. As a matter of good corporate governance, the Board determined to submit to stockholders for ratification the appointment of Ernst & Young. For Proposal 2, a majority of the votes properly cast is required in order to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young. In the event that a majority of the votes properly cast do not ratify this appointment of Ernst & Young, we will review our future appointment of Ernst & Young. We will now open the meeting for any questions. [Operator Instructions] We will now give everyone a moment to submit any questions they may have. Catherine, have any questions been submitted?

David, no questions have been submitted.

Thanks, Catherine. The question-and-answer portion of the meeting is now closed. We will now proceed with the voting. Anyone who is voting by virtual ballot and has not already done so during this meeting, please click the Vote Here on the virtual platform and mark your virtual ballot now. We will now give everyone a moment to mark their virtual ballots. As a reminder, if you have previously turned in your proxy and you do not intend to change your vote, it is not necessary that you complete another proxy or virtual ballot. [Voting]

The inspector of elections will not accept virtual ballots, proxies or votes or any changes or revocations submitted after the closing of the polls. It is now 9:13 a.m. on May 29, 2020, and the polls for each matter to be voted on at this meeting are now closed. No additional virtual ballots, proxies or votes and no changes or revocations will be accepted. Inspector of elections, please report on the preliminary votes -- preliminary results of the voting.

With regard to Proposal 1, the 3 director nominees received the plurality of votes entitled to vote and cast. With regard to Proposal 2, a majority of the votes properly cast have been voted in favor of the ratification of Ernst & Young as the corporation's independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.

Thank you, Junlin. I declare that all of the proposals presented at the meeting have been ratified or approved by the stockholders. The final results of voting, including any virtual ballots and proxies recorded during this meeting, will be set forth in the report of the inspector of elections and will be included in the minutes of the meeting. The final results will also be included in a Form 8-K filed with the SEC. With the formal meeting now adjourned, we are able to address any general questions or issues raised by stockholders. Let's pause briefly to see whether any questions were submitted. While we pause to assemble the questions, I will remind stockholders that in responding to questions, we may make forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please be aware that all such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties such as those detailed in our SEC filings, including our 10-K and most recent 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements that we make must be considered in light of these factors. Actual results may vary materially. There being no other matters for consideration at this meeting, I hereby adjourn this meeting. I'd like to conclude by thanking stockholders for their attendance today and for their continued support of our company. Thank you.

This does conclude today's conference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a great day.