Valmont Industries, Inc. (VMI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings, and welcome to Valmont Industries' 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Mogens Bay, Chairman of the Board. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mogens Bay. And as Chairman of Valmont, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our annual meeting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, today's meeting is being audio webcast to our shareholders and will be made available for replay at our website, valmont.com. We have 3 proposals that are outlined in Valmont's proxy statement to be voted upon at this meeting, and we will then announce the results. I can confirm that all Valmont directors are attending the meeting either in person or on the phone. And the Valmont Directors are: Kaj den Daas, Kaj is the retired Chief Executive Officer of Quality Light Source; Ritu Favre, Ritu is the Executive Vice President of National Instruments; Dr. Theo Freye, Theo is the retired Chief Executive Officer of CLAAS; Stephen Kaniewski, Steve is our CEO; Richard Lanoha, Rick is the Chief Executive Officer of Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc; James J.B. Milliken, J.B. is the Chancellor of the University of Texas System; Dan Neary, Dan is the retired Chief Executive Officer of Mutual of Omaha; Catherine Paglia, Cathy is a Director of Enterprise Asset Management; Ambassador Clark T. Randt, Jr., Sandy is the President of Randt & Company LLC and the former United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China; Joan Robinson-Berry, Joan is the retired Vice President, Chief Engineer of Boeing Global Services; Walter Scott, Jr., Walter is the retired Chairman of Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc. [ Anne Dusick ] of Deloitte & Touche is participating in today's meeting. Deloitte is available to respond to any questions you may have about our financials. At this time, I call upon Andy Massey, Corporate Secretary, to read the required legal notice.

Mr. Chairman, this meeting is convened in accordance with the proxy mailed on March 16, 2021, to all shareholders of record as of March 1, 2021. We have received the affidavit of mailing from Broadridge stating that this mailing was complete and accurate. [ Tim Dolman ] has been appointed inspector of election and a list of all shareholders is available for review. The inspector has advised us that there are 21,262,503 shares outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. Of that number, more than 92% are represented by proxy at this time.

Thank you. There are 3 matters for shareholders to vote upon at this meeting: number one, the election of 4 directors whose terms will expire in 2024, the 4 directors are to Theo Freye, Steve Kaniewski, Dan Neary and Joan Robinson-Berry; two, advisory approval of the company's executive compensation; and three, to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as independent auditors for fiscal 2021. Those of you who did not vote by proxy or those who already voted by proxy and now wish to vote in person, now have the opportunity to do so. We will now consider the shareholder matters. May I have a motion and a second in favor of the 3 shareholder proposals?

So moved.

Second.

Thank you. Is there any discussion? Please vote at this time, if you have not already done so. [Voting]

At this time, I declare the polls for each matter voted upon at this meeting closed and direct that the election inspector tabulate the ballots. Because more than a majority of our stock voted by proxy, I can now provide the voting results. A majority of common shareholders who are present, both in person and by proxy, have voted for the 3 matters described in Valmont's proxy statement. All shareholder proposals have been approved. Last Thursday, Steve Kaniewski, Valmont's CEO, provided a financial update during the company's first quarter earnings conference call. I encourage our shareholders to listen to the replay, which is currently available at our website, valmont.com. In addition, shareholders are always encouraged to contact our investment relations -- our Investor Relations Officer, Renee Campbell, with any questions. Thank you for participating in today's annual meeting. And since there is no further businesses to be considered, I declare the 2021 annual Shareholders meeting adjourned.