Good morning. Welcome to the Otis Worldwide Corporation 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Jeannie. I will be hosting the meeting today. I would now like to turn the call over to Judy Marks, Chair, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Otis.
Thank you, Jeannie, and good morning to all of you on the call. It's my pleasure to welcome you to our sixth annual meeting of shareholders. It's my absolute honor to lead this organization, and I could not be prouder of our Otis colleagues who every day prioritize the safe and reliable movement of passengers around the world. We thank you, our shareholders, for joining us today and for your continuing support. We're hosting our meeting virtually today, which allows us to be more inclusive and reach a greater number of our shareholders. We will conduct the formal portion of our meeting first and then spend time answering your questions. It's now 9:01 A.M. Eastern Time on May 27th, 2026, and this meeting is officially called to order. First, I'd like to introduce the other members of our Board of Directors who are on the call with us today.
John Walker, Tom Bartlett, Jeff Black, Jill Brannon, Nelda Connors, Kathy Hannan, Chris Kearney, Margaret Preston, and Shelley Stewart. Next, le t me introduce you to the other Otis executives joining us on the call today. Cristina Méndez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Nora LaFreniere, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, and Susan Grady, Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary. Susan will act as secretary of the meeting. We're also joined today by Ben Towne, a Representative of our Independent Auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Finally, Otis has appointed Louis Larson of Broadridge Financial Services to act as Inspector of Election. Louis took the oaths of Inspector of Election earlier today. After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we'll provide time for your questions. Only validated shareholders may submit questions or comments in the Q&A section on the web console.
As detailed in the rules of conduct and procedures, we will only address questions or comments that are pertinent and appropriate. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending is permitted to use any audio recording device. The Board of Directors fixed March 30th, 2026, as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to attend and vote at this meeting. Broadridge commenced mailing the notice of 2026 annual meeting on April 17th, 2026, to shareholders of record at the close of the business on the record date. The shareholder list shows that as of the record date, there were 385,710,610 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting.
We were informed by the Inspector of Election that they're represented in person, virtually, or by proxy shares of common stock representing 345,538,938 votes, or approximately 89% of the voting power on the record date. Since this represents more than a majority of the voting power of all issued and outstanding stock entitled to vote on the record date, a quorum is present for purposes of transacting business. The polls are open for voting on the four proposals that will be presented. Any shareholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change his or her vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web console and following the instructions. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or previously voted via telephone or internet do not need to take any further action unless they wish to change their vote. After the proposals are presented, the polls will close.
Now I will turn the call over to Susan to present the proposals.
Thanks, Judy. I will now present the proposals to be voted upon at this meeting. Proposal one is the election of directors. Our proxy statement provides information about the 10 nominees. The board unanimously recommends a vote for each nominee. Proposal two is an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the executive officers named in the proxy statement. The Board unanimously recommends a vote for this proposal. Proposal three is the appointment of an Independent Auditor for 2026. The Audit Committee has nominated PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Board endorsed the nomination and unanimously recommends a vote for this proposal. Proposal four is a shareholder proposal. I turn the floor over to John Chevedden to present the proposal.
Hello, this is John Chevedden. Proposal four, avoid brand damage due to corporate political spending. Shareholders of Otis Worldwide request that the company provide a report updated annually, disclosing the company's policies and procedures for making contributions to participate in any campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office or influence the general public with respect to an election, monetary and non-monetary contributions and expenditures used in the manner described above, including the identity of the recipient as well as the amount paid to each. The report shall be presented to the Board of Directors and posted on the company's website. This proposal does not encompass lobbying expenditures. Long-term shareholders of Otis support transparency and accountability in corporate election spending. A company's reputation, value, and bottom line can be adversely impacted by political spending.
The risk is especially serious when giving to trade associations, Super PACs, 527 committees, and social welfare organizations, groups that routinely pass money to candidates and political causes that a company might not otherwise wish to support. A recent poll of retail shareholders by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy found that 83% of respondents said that they would have more confidence investing in companies that have adopted reforms that provide for transparency and accountability in political spending. Otis scored only 35% out of a possible score of 100% in the 2025 CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability. Otis does not disagree with its 35% score out of a possible 100% score. Otis also failed to name one small step taken to improve its 35% score, although Otis received this proposal five months before this annual shareholder meeting.
This proposal four is a reasonable proposal because it won majority support at five major companies in 2025. Without knowing the recipients of our company's political dollars, Otis Directors and shareholders cannot sufficiently assess whether our company's election-related spending aligns with or conflicts with its policies on climate change and sustainability and other areas of concern. Please vote for this timely governance reform. Avoid brand damage due to corporate political spending, proposal four.
Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. As noted in the proxy, the board unanimously recommends a vote against this proposal for the reasons set forth therein. Judy, I will now hand the call back over to you to close the voting.
Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders closed. I will turn the call over to our Inspector of Election, Louis Larson, to provide the preliminary vote report. Otis will be reporting the final vote results in a Form 8-K to be filed within four business days of this meeting.
Thank you, Judy. The preliminary vote report shows that each of the nominees for election to the board received at least 95.96% of the votes for his or her election. The advisory vote for the compensation of the named executive officers has been approved by 93.59% of the votes. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent auditor has been approved by 99.78% of votes. The shareholder proposal has been rejected by 53.93% of votes.
Thank you, Louis. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is now adjourned. Now we will begin the shareholder question and answer session. Please note that we will attempt to answer as many pertinent and appropriate questions today as time allows. Out of considerations for others, please limit yourself to one question. Nora, would you please share the first question?
Thank you, Judy. The first question is any turnaround expected in Chinese real estate market that continues to heavily weigh on the company's new equipment revenue? How much of the supply chain has been localized to mitigate tariff impacts and geopolitical vulnerabilities across the Middle East and the Americas?
Thank you for the question. In terms of the China real estate, we are in year 5 of the decline, but we're continuing to see the impact become less and less. Last year, we implemented the China transformation program to be able to get our costs more in line and our organizational structure more in line with the new reality in China, where now, as of last quarter, Otis's service business is more than 50% of our China business. In terms of supply chain resilience, ever since COVID, and even before that, we have continued to work on supply chain resilience to be able to have multiple sources for almost all of the key elements of our supply chain.
In terms of what we have moved to support our factory and our deliveries out of Florence, South Carolina, which supports the U.S. and Canada, we have found new suppliers, in terms of them being in the Western Hemisphere and a few which have opened their operations or support us out of the U.S. to give us more resiliency and to minimize the impact of tariffs. In terms of the Middle East, we don't source from or manufacture in the Middle East. Obviously, we're dealing with implications of the Middle East conflict in terms of fuel prices, logistics costs, shipment costs. We are continuing to mitigate those costs through a variety of approaches.
Thank you, Judy. At this time, there are no additional shareholder questions that are relevant to the business of this meeting.
We thank you for your attendance today and your continuing support. We look forward to continuing our exciting journey with you. Have a great and safe day.
This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.