The Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello. And welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of The Williams Companies, Inc. Also, please note that links to the company's annual meeting materials, the rules of conduct for this annual meeting and the company's forward-looking statement cautionary language are available on the meeting portal. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Williams Companies, Inc., Mr. Stephen Bergstrom. Mr. Bergstrom, the floor is yours.

Thank you. The meeting is now reconvened and will please come to order. I am Steve Bergstrom, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and will act as the presiding officer of this annual meeting. I would like to welcome all of you to this, our first virtual annual meeting. I would now like to introduce you to our Board of Directors. Our current directors are Nancy Buese; Steve Chazen; Casey Cogut; Kathy Cooper; Mike Creel; Vicki Fuller; Peter Ragauss; Scott Sheffield; Murray Smith; Bill Spence; and Alan Armstrong, who is also our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before we proceed, I want to take a moment to recognize Kathy Cooper for her 14 years of director service to the company. She has been a tremendous asset to the company and, to understate, helped guide the company through some very interesting times. Kathy has reached our mandatory retirement age, and so this will be her last meeting as a Williams director. Kathy, thank you, and you will certainly be missed. And now on to our business. We'll begin with the formal business portion of the meeting, during which the voting on the proposals contained in the company's proxy statement will be conducted. Following the formal business portion of the meeting, we will transition to the informal portion of the annual meeting. During this portion of the meeting, our CEO, Alan Armstrong, will provide a report on operational and strategic matters. We will then entertain stockholder questions which have been electronically submitted through the meeting portal. To address some meeting administration. I note that [ Ms. Sheryl Mann ] will act as Secretary of the Meeting; and that Mr. Joseph Roache of Computershare trust company will act as Inspector of Elections for the receipt, validation and tabulation of proxies and votes. Our Corporate Secretary, Bob Riley, will read the submitted stockholder questions aloud. The Secretary has reported that a meeting quorum is present, and I have received proof in the form of an affidavit of mailing that proper notice of the annual meeting has been given. In order to conduct an orderly meeting, I ask that you please follow the rules of conduct, which are linked on the meeting portal. We will now begin the business portion of the meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. Do I have a nomination?

Mr. Chairman, I nominate to serve as directors for the ensuing year the entire slate of directors listed in our proxy statement, specifically each of Alan S. Armstrong, Stephen W. Bergstrom, Nancy K. Buese, Stephen I. Chazen, Charles I. Cogut, Michael A. Creel, Vicki L. Fuller, Peter A. Ragauss, Scott D. Sheffield, Murray D. Smith and William H. Spence.

Mr. Chairman, I second the nominations.

I declare that the nominations for directors are now closed. The second item of business is to approve the amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 incentive plan.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 incentive plan be approved.

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

The third item of business is to approve the amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 employee stock purchase plan.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 employee stock purchase plan be approved.

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

The next item of business is an advisory vote on executive compensation.

Mr. Chairman, I move that the company's executive compensation be approved on an advisory basis.

And Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

The next item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accountants for 2020.

Mr. Chairman, I move that such appointment be approved and ratified.

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

The polls are now open. If you have not already cast your vote, there is a link to vote on the meeting portal. If you previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. Before proceeding with the meeting, I will wait a few moments for the submission of any votes. [Voting]

I declare that the polls are now closed. The next item of business is the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections. Any votes cast before the polls closed but not reflected in the Inspector of Election's preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the Inspector of Elections. I now call on the Inspector of Elections for his preliminary report.

Mr. Chairman, I report that each of the nominees for director received a majority of the votes cast. A majority of the votes cast were voted in favor of the amendment to the company's 2007 incentive plan. A majority of the votes cast were in favor of the amendment to the company's 2007 employee stock purchase plan. A majority of the votes cast were voted in favor on an advisory basis of the company's executive compensation. And a majority of the votes cast were voted in favor and thereby ratifying the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's auditors for 2020.

Based on the Inspector of Election's preliminary report, I now declare the election of each of the nominations as director of the company, the amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 incentive plan is approved. The amendment to the Williams Companies 2007 employee stock purchase plan is approved. On an advisory basis, the company's executive compensation is approved. And the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP appointment as the company's auditor for 2020 is approved and ratified. Final voting results will be available in a Form 8-K, which the company will file with the SEC within 4 business days. There being no further business, is there a motion to adjourn the business portion of the annual meeting?

Mr. Chairman, I so move.

And Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

I now declare the business portion of the annual meeting adjourned. We will now proceed with the informal portion of the annual meeting. It is now my pleasure to introduce our company's President and CEO, Mr. Alan Armstrong.

Okay. Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest and investment in The Williams Companies, and we are meeting virtually this year due to public health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and to prioritize the health and well-being of meeting participants. Before I begin my prepared remarks, I want to recognize and extend my own personal thanks to Kathy Cooper. Kathy was the first woman to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Williams, making her one of the select few women to serve as an S&P 500 company Chairman of the Board. I also note that being a female board chair within the energy sector is even more uncommon, and certainly appreciative of her strong leadership during this period. Kathy has been a director with service on each of our 4 major Board committees. She was more than up to the challenge for the Board leadership role. Kathy's leadership coming out of what was a very difficult period of transition both for Williams and for our Board was instrumental in producing the rejuvenated company and outstanding Board that we have today. During her 14 years as a Williams director, Kathy's insights and judgment helped chart Williams' course through a wide range of corporate activities, which were often positive but always challenging. She leaves us after today, having attended over 220 Board meetings and an additional 200 Board committee meetings. Kathy, thank you for your years of valued counsel, and you've been an invaluable asset both to Williams and to me personally. Your determination and principled approach to governance have served this company and its long-term shareholders extremely well, and you can leave this important assignment with your head held high for a job very well done. Over the last couple of months, we have all experienced a lot of changes in our personal lives as well as in our working lives to slow the spread of the virus. Williams employees across the nation are certainly doing their part to keep each other healthy and our essential operations running safely and reliably during these unusual times. Despite all the volatility in the financial market and the commodity prices in the energy sector we've seen over the past 1.5 months, I feel that we, as a company, have certainly had an opportunity to distinguish ourselves through this market cycle with our natural gas focused strategy. Williams handles over 30% of the nation's natural gas through our well-placed pipelines and processing facilities. We own and operate more than 30,000 miles of pipelines that deliver the best supplies to the best markets. Our assets and the underlying strength of natural gas as a clean, reliable and affordable energy source has been reflected in our stock performance in recent weeks compared to our peers. And looking back at our accomplishments in 2019, we can see how well positioned we are today to move through these challenging times while achieving long-term success and differentiation within the energy sector. It was another year of records at Williams in 2019. Once again, Williams delivered impressive year-over-year growth and exceeded guidance in our key financial metrics in 2019. Williams produced record annual adjusted EBITDA, record distributable cash flow. We enjoyed record gathered volumes and, on top of that, improved our credit metrics over 2018 through some very attractive asset sales. This highly reliable and predictable performance is the result of continuous improvement by our operating teams on many fronts, including capital project execution, reliable and on-time services to our customers, safety performance, environmental stewardship, capital discipline and operating efficiency. Our record average daily gathering volume of almost 13 Bcf per day for the full year 2019 was driven by 15% growth in the prolific Marcellus and Utica basins. The company also saw continued growth in our interstate gas transmission business driven by an 11% growth in the long-term firm contracted business on the capacity along Transco, the nation's largest and fastest-growing pipeline system. As these strong results from last year illustrate, we are successfully delivering on a deliberate strategy to provide infrastructure services for natural gas. Natural gas is an economically and environmentally superior energy source with dramatically less exposure to geopolitical factors. We also have made a concerted effort over the last 4 years to sell businesses with direct commodity exposure and to invest in assets with more predictable cash flows. And obviously, this is serving us very well at this time with very volatile commodity prices. These asset sales have also served to improve our balance sheet, providing flexibility and financial stability moving forward, and we are continuously returning these results to our shareholders in the form of dividends. In fact, Williams has now paid a common stock dividend every quarter since 1974, putting Williams amongst an elite group of NYSE energy companies that have paid a dividend for 45 years or more. And so with that said, we will now move to our stockholder questions.

At this time, we'll entertain stockholders' questions electronically submitted through the meeting portal. [Operator Instructions] Mr. Chairman, at this time, I report that we have not received any questions from stockholders.

Very well. Our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders has now concluded. Thank you for attending and for your continuing support of the company. You may now disconnect. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you.

This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect. Thank you.