Aon plc (AON) Earnings Call Transcript

Hello and welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Aon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Lester Knight, Chairman of the company's Board of Directors. Mr. Knight, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Lester Knight, Chairman of Aon's Board of Directors. At this time, it's my pleasure to welcome all of you to Aon's 2020 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, being held in Chicago as well as via a satellite meeting in Dublin, Ireland, in accordance with Irish law. We also have shareholders participating virtually through our meeting center website due to travel and health recommendations and restrictions in connection with COVID-19. I would like to turn the meeting over to Greg Case, CEO of Aon, to officially call the meeting to order.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Greg Case, the CEO of Aon. And being the only director physically present in Chicago this morning, I've been selected to serve as Chairperson of this meeting under the Articles of Association. In accordance with the notice of meeting, given it is now past 8:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time, I'm informed that there is a quorum present, I declare that the Annual General Meeting is open.

Thank you, Greg. There are 5 items of business on today's agenda, on which a vote will be taken. These agenda items are set forth in the proxy materials sent to shareholders on/or about April 24, 2020. Furthermore, we are formally laying before the meeting for consideration by the shareholders, the company's statutory financial statements under Irish law for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, including the reports of the directors and the Irish statutory auditor thereon, and we will also present a review of Aon's 2019 affairs. Copy of these statutory financial statements is contained in the proxy statement for this Annual General Meeting and is also available in hard copy form at the meeting venue. There's no requirement under Irish law that these financial statements be approved by the shareholders, and we're not seeking any such approval at today's meeting. There will be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] The members of our Board of Directors are participating virtually and are available to answer any shareholder questions. Now it's my pleasure to introduce Darren Zeidel, the company's Secretary, who will provide the Secretary's report.

Thank you, Lester. Notice of this Annual General Meeting, together with Aon's proxy statement and annual reports for the year ended December 31, 2019, were made available beginning on April 24, 2020, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 17, 2020. Aon has appointed Jennifer Leone of Computershare as inspector of election for the voting at the Annual General Meeting. In accordance with our Articles of Association, voting today will be done by way of a poll on each of the resolutions put to the meeting. This is seen as best practice as it gives all shareholders the opportunity to participate in the decision-making of the company and have their votes recorded even if they are unable to attend the meeting in person. A quorum is present at today's Annual General Meeting. Based on a preliminary report from the inspector of election of the 231,082,482 shares entitled to vote at the meeting, more than 208 million shares, representing approximately 90% of the total voting rights of the shareholders entitled to vote are present in person or by proxy at the meeting. As a result, I will declare that a quorum is present and we will proceed with the meeting. Now I would like to turn the meeting over to Greg Case.

Thank you, Darren. I appreciate it. I want to just start by saying on behalf of management, we'd like to thank the shareholders for their support of our firm throughout the year and over time. We'd also like to thank the Board of Directors for their tireless and valuable efforts to support our team and our mission of our firm. I'd just like to highlight, as we think about the journey of Aon, Slide 3 references the Aon United blueprint. And what this highlights is the journey we have had to build and strengthen Aon. It highlights the aspects of our firm that we focus on every day around, first and foremost, our colleagues. Second is how we deliver our global capability to our clients every day, delivering Aon United. Also how we support our colleagues, Aon Business Services and how that effort has reinforced the performance of the firm as well as our effectiveness at the front-line on behalf of clients. And the last piece of this, certainly not the least, very important is our efforts around new ventures and how we actually are working to drive innovation at scale in an unprecedented way around Global Aon. This blueprint has served us very, very well and put us in an excellent position to not only succeed in the now here but also in the future as we continue to build Global Aon, and certainly, as we bring the combination of Aon and Willis Towers Watson together and build an even stronger firm forward for our shareholders, for our clients and for our colleagues. With that, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Christa Davies, our CFO, for her thoughts on our financial performance. Christa?

Thank you so much, Greg. And I'm referring to Slide 5 of the presentation materials. You can see from our results over the last 10 years, we've had a very disciplined focus on capital management and free cash flow. We finished 2019 with a record return on invested capital of 23.5%, a record in the company's history. We continue to drive free cash flow margin defined as free cash flow divided by revenue, and again, a highlight at the end of 2019 at 19.1%. Our strategy to drive free cash flow is focused on driving organic revenue growth, margin expansion and then reducing discretionary uses of cash, pension, CapEx and improving working capital. We believe this combination will unlock substantial long-term shareholder value creation, and we're very excited about the future growth of Aon, and in particular, with the combination with Willis Towers Watson. With that, I'll hand back to you, Lester.