Welcome to CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. annual meeting of shareholders. I would like to introduce Mr. Stephen Lebovitz, Chief Executive Officer and Director, who will be serving as chairman of the annual meeting.
Good afternoon, welcome to the annual meeting of shareholders of CBL Properties. On your screens, you should see an agenda for today's meeting, as well as the rules of conduct for the annual meeting. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask the participants to abide by these rules, and we appreciate your cooperation. Following the close of the business portion of the meeting, we'll be glad to answer any questions you may have about CBL. You may submit your question using the designated field on the web portal. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. In addition to myself, our director nominees in attendance today are David Contis, Chairman of the Board, and directors Marjorie Bowen, David Fields, Robert Gifford, Jeff Kivitz, and Michael Torres. Jeffery V. Curry, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, will act as Secretary of the meeting.
I would also like to introduce Peter Scheibelein, Director of Broadridge Financial Services, who will be serving as the Inspector of Election for today's meeting. Finally, I would like to introduce Chris Bell of Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accountants. As noted in the proxy statement, the independent accountants have the opportunity to make a statement at this time if they desire to do so. Chris has indicated that they do not wish to make a statement but will be available to respond to any appropriate questions following the close of the formal business portion of the meeting. This meeting is now formally called to order. During the business portion, only those shareholders of record as of April 7, 2026 will be recognized.
I have in my possession a list of shareholders of record entitled to vote at this meeting and the valid proxies received from those shareholders. I also have copies of the notice of meeting, the proxy statement, and the annual report, and a copy of an affidavit of service of notice of the meeting certifying that these documents were provided to the shareholders of record of CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. These documents will be filed with the records of the company. This brings us to the first item on the agenda, which is the determination of a quorum. The bylaws of CBL & Associates Properties provide that a quorum shall constitute the presence in person or by proxy of the majority of shares entitled to vote at the meeting. The company secretary, Jeff Curry, has been in charge of the proxies and shareholders present.
May I now have the inspector's report on whether a quorum is present?
Mr. Chairman, the Inspector of Election has reviewed the proxies that have been received and has examined the credentials of the shareholders present. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that the holders of at least 26.89 million shares of common stock, constituting 86.9% of the common stock entitled to vote, are present in person or by proxy at the meeting. Therefore, a quorum is present.
Thank you. Since a quorum is present, this meeting will therefore proceed. I will now present the matters to be voted upon. Those shareholders present that have already turned in their proxies do not need to vote again. Proposal 1 is the nomination and election of directors as placed before the meeting in the proxy statement and listed on the proxy ballot. The board of directors has nominated 7 currently serving directors to be reelected to the board for a one-year term to end in conjunction with the 2027 annual meeting and until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified. Proposal 2 is the approval and ratification of the board of directors' selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the independent registered public accountants for the company's fiscal year ended December 31, 2026.
Finally, as required by the SEC, the third proposal is an advisory vote on the approval of the compensation of the named executive officers included in the company's proxy statement filed in conjunction with this annual shareholders meeting. Now that the agenda items have been presented, any shareholder voting today through the web portal may submit their vote. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls to be closed and ask the Inspector of Election to provide a preliminary report on the vote.
Mr. Chairman, the preliminary vote report shows that the nominees for election for the board have been duly elected, the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP has been ratified, and the majority of the votes cast in the advisory vote concerning executive compensation were voted in favor of the approval of the compensation of the named executive officers.
Thank you. The chair declares that all proposals have passed. The chair hereby directs the results of the election to be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. The company will file a Form 8-K within four business days with the final vote results. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. annual shareholder meeting is now adjourned. We would now like to open things up for shareholder questions. Again, if you have a question, you may submit it through the designated area on the web portal. We will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but we'll only address questions that are germane to the meeting.
There are no questions.
Being that there are no questions, thank you again for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support of the company.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.