Greetings. Welcome to the AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. special stockholders meeting. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Adam Aron, CEO and Chairman. You may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning. Will the meeting please come to order. I'm Adam Aron, a director, the President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Incorporated. Whether you are physically with us in Leawood, Kansas or listening to our audio webcast, welcome to this special meeting of stockholders. An agenda outlining the order of business has been made available. The matters on which the stockholders will be voting today are to, 1, amend our certificate of incorporation to increase the authorized shares of our common stock to 550 million shares and 2, to further amend our certificate of incorporation to effectuate a 1-for-10 reverse split of our common stock. Importantly, when taken together, the proposals, if approved and implemented, will trigger automatic conversion of all our outstanding AMC Preferred Equity units, commonly known as APEs, into AMC common stock.
Both proposals must be approved for either one to take effect. 3, there is also a 3rd issue on the agenda for voting today, the ability to adjourn or recess the meeting if needed to address the hypothetical scenario that not enough shares were present in person or via proxy for the meeting to have a quorum. I will serve as chairman of this meeting. Kevin Connor, the Senior Vice President of AMC, our General Counsel and Secretary of the company, will serve as Secretary of today's meeting. He has delivered an affidavit to me from Computershare, the notice agent for this special meeting. That affidavit states that on February 14th, 2023, a notice of the meeting was mailed to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 8th, 2023, the record date for the meeting.
This affidavit will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Mr. Connor will now discuss the procedures for transacting the business at this meeting.
Thank you, Adam. Good morning. The meeting will take place as described in the agenda. We do in fact have a quorum of stockholders present in person or by proxy to conduct business. When an item of business on the agenda is before the meeting for consideration, questions and comments should be limited to that item. If you wish to make a statement about any resolution pending on the floor, please raise your hand to be recognized. Once you are recognized, please approach the microphone, state your name and whether you are a stockholder or a proxy holder. If you are a proxy holder, please state the name of the stockholder that gave you the proxy. Please keep your statements brief and limited to the specific item up for discussion.
We may have to interrupt any statement unrelated to the matter up for a vote or that continues for an unreasonable amount of time. Any speaker will be limited to an absolute maximum of two minutes. As disclosed in the proxy statement, our AMC Class A Common Stock and APE Series A Convertible Participating Preferred Stock will vote together as a single class for the purpose of this meeting. Also, as previously disclosed, pursuant to the terms of all the terms of the APEs, all of the Series A Convertible Participating Preferred Stock, which is held by the depositary, will be voted by the depositary in accordance with the voting instructions actually received from holders of the underlying APE Preferred Equity units.
This means that the APEs with voting instructions will, of course, be counted, plus the balance of the preferred stock for which no voting instructions were received also will be voted by the depositary as the legal owner of the preferred stock, but done so in the same exact proportions of for, against, or abstain, as is the case with the APE preferred equity units where voting instructions were actually submitted. If you have not already cast your votes and would like to vote during the meeting, please use the ballot provided at registration. Ballots will be collected at the conclusion of the business items on the agenda. Any ballot not received when called for will not be counted.
Many of you listening in to the audio webcast of the meeting undoubtedly will be pleased to hear that we will announce the preliminary results of the voting at the conclusion of the meeting just a few minutes from now.
Thank you, Kevin. The board of directors has appointed two officers of the company in our legal department, Eddie Gladback and Kevin Connor, as inspectors of election for the meeting. They have signed an oath to act as inspectors of election, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The inspectors have the registered stockholder list of the company as of the record date for determining stockholders eligible to vote at the meeting. Kevin Connor has just advised us that a quorum is present. I hereby now declare the meeting duly and lawfully convened.
The 1st proposal for consideration is approval of an amendment to our certificate of incorporation to increase the total number of authorized shares of our Class A Common Stock, par value 1 cent per share, from 524,173,073 shares to 550 million shares exactly. As disclosed in the proxy statement, the board of directors recommends voting for this proposal. A motion on proposal 1 is now in order.
Carla Chavarria, a stockholder. I move that Proposal 1, as set forth in the proxy statement, be approved.
Thank you, Carla. Is there a second?
Mark Latimer, a stockholder. I second the motion.
Thank you, Mark. Are there any questions or comments on this motion? Hearing none, I deem that there is no further discussion and hereby call the question and declare the polls open to vote on the motion. If you have not voted or if you wish to change your vote, please do so now by marking your ballot. Do you have a ballot to submit, sir?
Yes, I have.
Please do. Give it to that gentleman right there. Yeah.
Thank you. Either one.
That's it. I now declare the polls closed on motion 1, and we will proceed with the agenda. The next item of business is a proposal to approve an amendment of our certificate of incorporation to effectuate a reverse stock split of our Class A Common Stock at a ratio of 1 share for every 10 shares outstanding. As disclosed in the proxy statement, the board of directors recommends voting for this proposal. A motion on proposal 2 is now in order.
Jason Cole, a stockholder. I move that proposal 2, as set forth in the proxy statement, be approved.
Thank you, Jason. Is there a second?
Greg Romine, a stockholder. I second the motion.
Thank you, Greg. Are there any questions or comments on this motion? No comments in the room. There being no further discussion, I hereby call the question and declare the polls open to vote on the motion. If you have not yet voted or if you wish to change your vote, please do so now by marking your ballot. We're good in the room. All votes cast. I now declare the polls closed on this motion, and we will proceed with the agenda. The next item of business is proposal 3, which would allow for adjournment of the meeting, if necessary, to address a hypothetical lack of a quorum. I would note that this matter is now moot, as we do in fact have a quorum present. As disclosed in the proxy statement, the board of directors recommended voting for this proposal.
While proposal three is not now necessary, we will have the vote nonetheless. If you'd like your vote administratively recorded, please do so now by marking your ballot. No more ballots coming in. This concludes the business to be presented at this meeting. I understand that there is indeed a preliminary report from the inspectors of election and that the vote count is ready. Kevin Connor, will you please announce the results of our shareholders' votes?
Thank you, Adam. The preliminary report of the inspectors of election indicates proposal one has passed with 88.0% of the votes cast for, 11.2% against, 0.8% abstaining, with the following aggregate vote: 978.3 million votes in favor, 124.4 million votes against, 9.5 million votes abstaining. The votes in favor represent more than 67.5% of the outstanding shares entitled to vote. Here's a breakdown of this aggregate total vote on proposal one by type of security, common and preferred. Of the AMC common shares that actually voted, the vote is 72.5% for, 26% against, 1.5% abstaining.
The actual common stock vote count on proposal one is 132.2 million AMC shares in favor, 47.4 million AMC shares against, and 2.8 million AMC shares abstaining. The votes cast represent approximately 35% of the outstanding AMC shares. The aggregate total vote also includes APE preferred units. The APE preferred units, which provided specific instructions, voted as follows: 91.0% for, 8.3% against, and 0.7% abstaining, with 530.8 million APE units in favor, 43.3 million.
48 3.
48.3 million APE units against and 4.2 million APE units abstaining. The votes cast represent approximately 63% of the outstanding APES. Finally, the aggregate vote total on Proposal One also includes the following votes proportionally cast by the depositary on behalf of APES that did not provide voting instructions. They were voted in the exact same 91% for, 8.3% against, and 0.7% abstaining. The same as the APE units that were voted. That is 315.4 million APE units in favor, 28.7 million APE units against, and 2.5 million APE units abstaining.
As to Proposal Two, it passed with 87.3% of the votes cast for, 11.9% against, and 0.8% abstaining with the following aggregate vote: 971.1 million votes in favor, 132 million votes against, and 9.1 million votes abstaining. The votes in favor represent more than 67% of the outstanding shares entitled to vote. Here is a breakdown of this aggregate total vote on Proposal Two by type of security, common and preferred. Of the AMC common shares that actually voted, the vote is 70.4% for, 28.2% against, and 1.4% abstaining.
The actual common stock vote count on Proposal Two is 128.4 million AMC shares in favor, 51.4 million AMC shares against, and 2.6 million AMC shares abstaining. The votes cast represent approximately 35% of the outstanding AMC shares. The aggregate total vote also includes APE preferred units, which provided specific voting instruction and voted as follows: 90.6% for, 8.7% against, and 0.7% abstaining. 528.7 million APE units in favor, 50.5 million APE units against, and 7.1 million APE units abstaining. The votes cast represent approximately 63% of the outstanding APEs. The aggregate vote total also includes the following votes proportionally cast by the depositary on behalf of APEs that did not provide voting instructions.
They were voted in the exact same 90.6% for, 8.7% against, and 0.7% abstaining as the APE units that were voted. That is 314.1 million APE units in favor, 30 million APE units against, 2.4 million APE units abstaining. As to the Administrative Proposal Three on possible meeting adjournment for which no vote was required, the vote also was in favor by a very wide margin. 87.2% for, 11.6% against, 1.2% abstained. Final certified vote tabulations will be reported on Form 8-K filed with the SEC.
Thank you, Kevin. I hereby request that the final report of the inspectors of election be filed with the minutes of the meeting. I also, speaking personally and most sincerely, would like to commend our shareholders for the wisdom exhibited in your voting. By approving these proposals and doing so by such a wide margin, this is a landslide victory that shows your determination to keep AMC a strong and innovative company and the leader of our industry. The surest way to combat naysayers and prophets of doom is to keep our cash reserves robust, manage our balance sheet smartly, and operate our company as well as we know how. Your vote announced today is a crucial step in enabling us to do just that.
Given that AMC has literally millions of stockholders, many if not most, with relatively small holdings, I am especially grateful that so many of you were willing to take the time and make the effort to vote. The fact that those who are most willing to go through the effort to vote have voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposals speaks volumes and is especially gratifying. Here is what happens now. As previously disclosed, we will vigorously oppose claims made in litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery that we are not following the wishes of our shareholders in designing our share structure and authorizations. Your vote today in favor of our proposals, in my view, sends a very strong signal that we are doing exactly as you wish.
In connection with the with the litigation instituted by purported AMC stockholders, the Delaware Court of Chancery entered what's called a status quo order that allows this stockholder vote on the charter amendments proposals to proceed today, but precludes AMC from actually implementing the charter amendment proposals pending a ruling by the court on plaintiffs to be filed preliminary injunction motion. The court has scheduled a hearing on plaintiffs to be filed preliminary injunction motions for April 27 of 2023. We will keep you updated as we have more information. This completes the business to be conducted at this meeting, and a motion to adjourn is now in order.
I move that this meeting be adjourned.
Thank you, Cynthia. Is there a second?
Chris Cox, Stockholder. I second the motion.
Thank you, Chris. All in favor of the motion to adjourn, please signify by saying aye.
[crosstalk]
Opposed, no. Abstaining?
There's time for questions afterwards?
Yes.
Oh, great. Okay.
Opposed? None. The motion has been carried. Speaking both personally and for the board and for the management of your company, again, I'd like to thank our participating stockholders for your support of AMC as well as for your judgment and support in your voting today. You voted yes, and yes, by a vote of 88%, 87%, and 87% in favor. You indeed gave us the tools we need to continue to fight the good fight on your behalf. I hereby declare that this meeting is adjourned.