Sun Communities, Inc. (SUI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Sun Communities, Inc. Annual Meeting. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Gary Shiffman. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the 2020 Annual Stakeholders' Meeting of Sun Communities. I'm Gary Shiffman, the Chairman and CEO of the company. I want to thank everyone for joining us today, and welcome them to our first virtual meeting, which will allow us to be more inclusive and reach a greater number of stockholders, especially given the current limitations on travel and in-person meetings imposed by COVID-19. We'll conduct the business portion of our meeting first and answer questions at the end of the meeting. Though we may not be able to answer every question, we will do our best to provide a response to as many as possible. The polls to vote on the 3 proposals being considered at the meeting are now open. Any stockholder who hasn't voted yet or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. The polls will close at the conclusion of the discussion of the 3 proposals. It is now shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the meeting is officially called to order. Each year, I'm able to take this time to thank all of the incredibly dedicated Sun team members who work tirelessly on behalf of our residents, guests and all stakeholders. But this year, in particular, I want to take a little extra time to recognize the absolutely incredible services, work and caring that is taking place by the Sun team members. They stepped up to what has seemed like a never-ending work stream and placed the safety and health of our residents and guests first. They have designed and implemented programs addressing the needs, both financial and other of our residents as well as the needs of first responders and others providing assistance to those who are impacted by the pandemic. Today, I just want to thank them. I want to thank the team members and tell them how privileged and how proud they make me feel as a part of this company. To all of them and to all those on the phone and our guests and residents, we wish them to stay safe and stay healthy. And now I'd like to introduce the other members of the Board who are attending today's meeting virtually: Meghan Baivier, Stephanie Bergeron, Brian Hermelin, Ronald Klein, Clunet Lewis and Arthur Weiss. Also attending today's meeting virtually and representatives are -- of our independent auditor, Grant Thornton, they will be available during the question-and-answer session after the meeting to respond to appropriate questions. And finally, the company has appointed Matt Murphy, our outside legal counsel, and [ Jeffrey Ray Weiss ] to act as Inspector of Election. Mr. Murphy is attending today's meeting virtually and has taken the oath of Inspector of Election earlier today. After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will provide time for general questions. Only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field of web portal. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to 1 question. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device. March 23, 2020, was the record date of determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting. An affidavit has been delivered attesting to the fact that on or about April 6, 2020, a notice of internet availability of the notice of the meeting, the proxy statement and the 2019 annual report to stockholders, or those documents themselves, were mailed to all stockholders as the record date. On the record date, there were approximately 93.3 million shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. We are informed by the Inspector of Elections that approximately 90% of those shares are represented at this meeting, and therefore, a quorum is present for purposes of transacting business. Now I'll present the matters to be voted upon. The polls to vote on the proposals will close after they are presented. The first proposal is the election of 7 directors to serve until our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. All of our current directors were nominated for election by the Board as disclosed in the proxy statement. The nominees are: Meghan Baivier, Stephanie Bergeron, Brian Hermelin, Ron Klein, Clunet Lewis, and Arthur Weiss. The second proposal is an advisory vote on executive compensation. This vote, which is often called a say on pay vote, is a nonbinding vote, although the compensation committee and the Board will certainly take the results of the vote into account when making future compensation decisions. The third proposal is the ratification of the selection of Grant Thornton as the independent registered accounting firm to audit the company's financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2020. [Voting]

Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls closed. The Inspector of Elections has informed me that the preliminary voting results indicate as follows: the nominees for election to the Board have been duly elected, the compensation package for executive officers has been approved and the appointment of Grant Thornton as the company's independent registered accounting firm for 2020 has been ratified. The company will report the final vote results by filing Form 8-K with the SEC in the next few days. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2020 Annual Meeting is now adjourned. Now we'd like to open it up for stockholder questions and comments. We'll attempt to answer as many questions as time permits but only questions that are relevant specifically to the meeting will be addressed. Since at this time, there are no questions. I would like to thank everybody for their participation. Again, I would like to wish that everyone stay healthy, stay safe out there, and thank you for attending. This concludes the annual meeting.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.